Fastest Car (2018) s01e05 Episode Script
Racing Is My Drug
1 I believe the car chose me.
We've been through so much together it's almost like, I think that's my wife, you know? Uh-oh.
Because I'm a street racer, when somebody talks shit to me, there's my car.
What do you want to do? When they're laughing at you, you brought a knife to a gunfight? No, we brought the warship.
This is my drug, you know? This is what gets me high, making this car better and better and better.
Thank you.
We've raced Ferraris in the past, and it's not been a problem, and the Ferrari guy can't understand how he lost.
And yet he doesn't realize he never had a chance.
- Start it up.
- What a dickhead.
It's gonna boil down to the driver.
It boils down to the tenths of a second.
I wouldn't even be in this race if I didn't think I had a chance.
That's just me.
I'm a confident fucker.
When I set out to build this car, I set out to build it the best in every possible category.
The best paint, best interior, best motor.
I never wanted to lose at anything, so, I I put in 150,000 in this car.
And I made it the most powerful LT1 motor in the country.
Back in 2004, my brother and I bought Red's Hydraulics.
We were car guys.
Yes, we knew about cars, but not so much about the low ride, and it's a different culture.
Low riders are a type of car, the ones that are nearly touching the ground.
But it's the hydraulics that boost them up and down, like a little dance.
This car was called the Black Widow.
This car was a world champion for over 12 years.
It would fly all four wheels off the ground as high as my forehead.
It would hit back bumper within two hits.
It would do side to side.
It would dance around.
The switches controlled the hydraulic pump, so, we actually drove the car outside on a switch panel.
It's what made our company famous.
We had this on the circuit for over 20 years.
And I retired it, and I parked it back here.
And now this is what a $40,000 paint job looks like after ten years.
The car was a representation of us, all our life.
My dad was a mechanic.
My dad loved cars.
We loved cars.
Seven years ago, my brother and I were collecting cars, and we had a dream of taking these cars, and rebuilding them, and bringing them back and showing them off.
But when my brother passed away six years ago, I parked everything.
I pulled everything to the back yard.
Toward the end, my brother said, "You know what? Let's buy an Impala.
Let's fix it up.
" Well, he started fixing it and he never really drove the car.
I remember he put the stereo system in it, and we were picking up from the stereo shop.
He throws me the keys and he says, "Hey, you know what? Jump in, let's go for a ride.
" So, throughout the whole trip home, my brother's asking me, "How does the car feel? Is the car fast?" And I remember, many times, it was parked in his garage.
And I asked him, "You know what? Why aren't you driving the car?" You know, "Why aren't you driving the car?" And he says, "You know what? I'm waiting for you to finish your Impala.
When you finish your Impala, we'll drive it together.
" I never finished my Impala and my brother never drove that car.
And, you know, when he passed away, I thought about it, thought about it, how, you know, here I am, wants the best of the best and try to build the nicest car.
But you know what? There comes a time when you've just got to enjoy it.
Last five years, I took my brother's Impala, and I tried to make it the nicest Impala in the country.
I touched every nut and bolt in that car in my brother's honor and name.
I built it to be fast.
You know, you can't really give up.
And I know my brother didn't want me to give up.
And I'm just doing it slow now.
And I feel my brother with me and I'm gonna do it in his honor.
Twice a week we come here, you know, pay our respects to Tony and Dad.
And this is where we come see him every week.
I'm gonna go over there and give him a kiss.
This Tuesday, I'm gonna race a Ferrari.
I know I'm stupid, but You know what? It's a short life and, you know, I love you.
I'm having fun.
I love you.
I can't wait to see you guys.
You know what? When I first built it, I brought the car here for my brother.
And I sat on that bench and cried, and tried to make sense to me, saying, "You know what? You only live once, man.
You only live once.
" And I'm doing this, I'm doing this out of pride and honor, you know? I have to win for my dad and brother Tony.
It means a lot.
So, is this like an interrogation? Do I need my lawyer? The story of Fabian began in Burbank.
When I was little, we had a neighbor that worked on cars, and I was always with him, helping him out, and He was really cool, and I enjoyed doing it.
And then when we went to Burbank, we went to Van Nuys Boulevard.
And Van Nuys Boulevard was just happening.
It was like nothing you ever saw.
The cars were amazing.
The people were amazing.
We had a lot of fun, and we were 12, 13, 14 years old going down there.
The first car I got was a V8 Vega.
I crashed it not too soon after I got it, because it was just a handful.
Learned about cars the hard way, by putting that car back together, and then started going out and racing that car and getting hustled.
We got hustled by some guys in Downey, we got hustled by some guys in Linwood area.
And these guys told us about a place that people would race on the street, legally.
And we said, "Bullshit, there's no place like that.
" So, we went to go check it out.
And there was.
It was called Terminal Island.
And it was a street.
And everybody was there, and Big Willie was there, the first time I met him.
Now, I got to make this clear⦠Our main goal at that racetrack Our main product that we want to produce is brotherhood.
Everybody understand that? Let me hear it.
Now, what are we trying to produce? - Brotherhood! - All right.
Willie's thing was don't fight each other with guns, knives or fists.
Take each other on with your cars.
And it could be your cars, foot race, motorcycles, whatever.
And then you come back and do it again.
So, a lot of guys would stop gang banging.
They'd stop, you know It was an amazing place.
Crime in Los Angeles went down 60 percent.
All of a sudden, there was no drive-by shootings anymore.
Now Terminal Island's gone.
We're fighting for a safer place to street race.
- What's up, man? - Don't be calling no We've only got a few members here, but this is family.
This is where family is and family begins, and we all act like family.
We have our problems, we have our disputes and at the same time we all love each other.
You know, we're all about brotherhood which means friendship.
We don't care what nationality you are, whether you're white, black, green, purple, red.
Cars bring us all together.
Everybody took on something to do and made it their project in helping Willie do what he had to do.
And then he got sick, and he didn't wanna be around anymore.
And we couldn't change that.
And the sad part was, he ended up passing away.
It's just hard.
I do miss Willie a lot.
Because to replace Willie, it took about ten of us and he was one guy.
I've got a 1984 Cutlass.
The model is POS which stands for Piece of Shit.
This car here, we found it literally at a wrecking yard.
We got this for 400 dollars and saved a bunch of money.
So, when we went to go look at this car, we had to get the sheriffs to evict the family of cats that were living in there.
And surprisingly, they were living next door to some rats, so, I don't know how that worked.
So, we had to get rid of those guys, too.
So, we cleaned this thing out as best as we could, and There's just a lot of stuff in there that was rusted.
It had been sitting out, not protected.
So, we had a lot of things, hoses, brake lines, tires.
I mean, just a lot of stuff that gets ruined with age, just from sitting.
We got zip ties for this car.
A lot of stuffs just held on just to make it look like it's held on.
Some of the stuff has flown off when we ran the car before, because these are old plastics, and they're brittle, they're falling off, so, the chrome's coming off of it.
And then we've got our little setup to hold the trunk open, because like I said, it's an old car.
Nothing in it works.
And then we took this thing because nobody would be afraid of it, and we've upgraded it to a car now that'll do 135 miles an hour at least.
And basically, hurt a lot of people's feelings because it's such an ugly, old car.
They wouldn't expect it to be that fast.
Sleepers are more or less cars that you just don't expect, a car that you look at, saying, "That can't be that fast.
" I mean, when a guy spends half a million dollars or a quarter million dollars on a car, he knows what he's getting.
But when he puts it up against a car that looks like it's only worth 500 dollars, they don't know what to expect from it.
But people like it, because it's just such a surprise.
You're just going, "Where did that come from?" And the car, you know All of a sudden, you've got a wolf in sheep's clothing.
And it comes out of nowhere.
You woke up the beast.
I consider myself a car guy to the extreme.
As you can see by my living quarters yeah, it's what I'm about.
So, when you get bit by the car bug, it's just something that you can't get rid of.
I can't explain it, but it's just by owning the car itself, you have this feeling of pleasure, you know? This is what you love.
And you come out here and look at it, and it just makes you I don't know.
It just gives me pleasure.
Almost like a car hoarder if you want to call it that.
I also just keep everything that I take off a car, you know? I store it here.
This is my organized mess.
I know where everything is at.
I know what I have.
I have everything here from 1930s to 1950s, from Japanese parts, to go-kart parts.
I mean, you name it.
It's so much stuff.
Turbo piping.
Jeez, I mean, I can tell you where all this stuff is.
I don't want to throw anything away.
You never know when you're gonna need it.
Now, the way I got into drifting was I met other people at car shows that introduced me to Japanese videos on drifting.
And I thought it was fascinating, so, I gave it a shot.
I was the only Mexican around.
The rest of the guys were either, you know, Asian or Japanese, because that's where it came from, the Japanese sport.
And I'm a very competitive type of guy, so I said, "Hey, if these guys can do it, I'm gonna do it.
" To me, drifting is a balance.
It takes skill, it takes the amount of gas, amount of pedal you want to put into it, braking, steering angle.
All that has to be perfect for your car to slide the way you want it to slide.
So, I've had the car bug all my life.
So, it's a heart with a turbo in it.
My turbo's powering the heart.
This is my 1983 Toyota Supra.
It's been with me since 1989.
I know, I was like an eighth-grader, something like that.
But it's just a cool ride.
And this is the baby that's gonna race on Tuesday.
Well, my car's a sleeper car because it wasn't meant to be as fast as it is now.
The upgrades to it are just insane and the power-to-weight ratio makes it like a super, super, super fast car.
But people don't think it's going to be fast until they actually hear it and see it, and then they're very surprised.
So, this is just Japanese style but with taste, you know? You know, it's rewarding to me because I built it, I drive it.
As a builder, you want to see results.
And it's funny, because we've been through so much together, the car and I.
It's almost like I think that's my wife, you know? Hey, Manny, where are you? Hey, guess what we're racing? - What? - Check this out.
A Ferrari 488GTB, 2017.
That's gonna be funny.
We're gonna make this guy's life miserable when he loses.
I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees what he's racing.
- Yeah.
- Wait 'till he gets a load of us.
I want to know how fast this Ferrari is.
488, mid-engine, 3.
9 liter Oh, twin turbo as well.
It's pretty fast.
It runs 10s.
- It looks nice, huh? Holy shit.
- Seven speed, dual clutch.
I'm gonna scare the shit out of him with my exhaust, though.
I'm gonna pull up beating, loud as hell with the stereo, and then I'm gonna drown him out with my exhaust.
Who is this guy? Let's just say he's this billionaire who owns this Ferrari, who probably He probably bought it yesterday, you know? And he said, "Hey, you know, I'm down to race, whatever you want.
" Let's just hope that that's what he did.
- Right, right.
- Right, man.
- Let's hope he doesn't have his - Straight up fight.
Straight up stick shift, clutch, gears, you got him.
Yeah, for sure.
This was the car that I never thought I would have, so, it's very special to me and I treat it very well, and it puts me in a great mood.
Every time I hear it start up, I love the sound.
You just keep reminding yourself you're in a Ferrari when you look at the little horsey on the steering wheel.
It's just, like, wow, this is my car.
It's pretty cool.
The idea of actually having that car was amazing to me, so I'd put on my Bocelli music, and I'd go run through the canyons with it, and just imagine myself racing.
I'm driving the 488 Ferrari, twin turbo V8.
I think they did a really good job on creating a supercar that you can drive on the streets, and yet take it out on the track and get the full benefits of really what the car's meant to do.
Yeah, when people see this car, it definitely draws attention.
When I see it, it attracts the eye.
The lines are beautiful.
Everyone loves seeing a Ferrari drive by, no matter who you are.
Grew up in the desert, and my dad was always into desert sports, motor sports.
And he'd always work on the cars on the weekends, and our bonding time, I think, for me growing up was being with him under the car, handing him wrenches, and having the radio on and fixing things.
Any way we could find a way around and do car stuff, go on rides, speed down freeways at night, we would do that together.
We'd say, okay, you can't drive unless you're doing at least 85.
All those moments kind of together, just gave me that thrill of speed and cars and building engines.
It really all kind of stemmed from from him.
I remember when Lisa and I were dating and she would beat me in just about everything we'd try to do.
So, it was like hanging out with a buddy.
I had a motorcycle and I said, "Hey, let's hop on the back of my motorcycle and we'll go down the street and get an ice cream or something.
" And I was pretty reluctant, but I thought, "Okay, well, I've got to do this, because I do like this guy.
" And So, I got on the back and we barely got a few blocks, and I was really grabbing on to him because it was freaking me out.
- Like, "Wait, does he see that car?" - We came back.
I got, she got off the motorcycle, I got off the motorcycle.
Took off her helmet or I took mine off and I said, "So, I was pretty good, right? Do you feel good about riding on the back?" She goes, "No, it still scares me to death.
" I said, "Well, can I jump on?" And he goes, "What do you mean?" I go, "Well, can I take your bike for a spin?" And he was really caught off guard by that.
I said, "I thought you were afraid to ride on a motorcycle.
" She goes, "No, I'm afraid to ride on the back of a motorcycle when I'm not driving.
" And she took that thing and popped a wheelie and took off.
He was just like, "Oh, my God, you didn't tell me you rode bikes.
" She's always been pedal to the metal.
Leadfoots, mechanics, understanding, coordinated, and then she says she wants to race.
Made sense.
So, I joined the Ferrari club and actually learned how to race.
These cars have been thought out, blueprinted out beyond genius level.
So, to see a sleeper off the gun next to this car on a drag race, quarter-mile straightaway, that's gonna be really interesting to see what you can put together to go up against one of these.
Ready? This is probably the most intricate build I've done in quite a long time.
It's almost no expense spared.
There's just so many upgrades I did to the car that I think are super cool, and I'm super impressed with my level of work I've done to this car.
The car's been running fine up until I had to make the necessary changes to create a massive amount of horsepower to keep up or beat a supercar.
And it's just giving me nothing but problems.
Right now, we don't have any power to the ECU which is the computer in the engine.
And it's not communicating with my laptop.
It won't tell my engine what it needs to do to start.
I think I have the right people under my wing that are gonna make it happen.
So, in a sense, I'm really not too stressed out about that.
The thing I really am stressed out about is whether or not I'm gonna break or what's this thing gonna do when it turns on and how it's gonna react, and all that stuff.
If it doesn't get turned on, we don't get to race.
And it's not that far away.
- Hey, Peanut.
- Yeah? It's not a car show, it's a car race.
And I'm not gonna go there looking like a hoopty.
I'm still gonna go there looking like I'm proud of my car and what I've done to my car.
You know, we're at a point, we've been at the damn engine shop for the last month, trying to make as much horsepower as we can out of this car.
We're at that max.
So, we've got to lose some weight.
Peanut, you've taken off the wheels.
Let's weigh these fuckers.
Well, let me get it off first.
Let's see how much this race wheel weighs.
- Let's see how much you weight.
- Me? - I think I might - Holy shit, 245.
It's accurate.
I think I might have to drive your car.
Let's see.
- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, shit.
If Peanut drives, it's one car length faster.
He's 100 pounds less.
Okay.
This wheel weighs under 50 pounds, so, like, 45 pounds.
Let's see what my factory wheels weight.
Seventy 75 pounds.
It's almost, pretty much just changing out these two wheels gives it almost a three-quarter, almost a car length faster, just by these two wheels.
I could take out the back seats, every battery, all the subwoofers, all the amps.
Shit, I can probably pull out 1000 pounds.
All right, so after you finish this, we've got to lose a little bit more weight, right? But not me.
I'm not gonna lose no fucking weight.
- I guess.
- The batteries.
- Depends on how serious it is back there.
- You need to keep one of them in there.
Because I need to still start the car and have a little bit of a stereo.
Well, if I can slide these out of here without electrocuting myself.
- So, we're gonna take out three, right? - Yeah, three.
Save the easiest one for the main.
Holy cow.
- It ain't heavy.
- Jesus! Ready to weigh this sucker? Oh, good.
Fifty pounds.
So, four batteries, 200 pounds.
That's another two car lengths.
I'm confident that my 1996 Impala will beat any super car out there.
I changed everything on the car except for the transmission.
So tomorrow, I'm gonna pull out the transmission.
- You're working? - Yeah.
I've got two days.
Two days, I'll replace the whole damn car if I had to.
I know Tony and Papa are proud of you.
- Thank you.
- He's watching over you.
And he'll be sitting in that car right next to you in that race.
- Yeah.
I don't want to fail him.
- You're not.
I had a great uncle and his name was Don Branson and he's a hall of fame sprint car, midget car guy.
He also did some Formula 1.
And he was racing with Mario Andretti's partner, Dick Atkins.
And they crashed, and both of them were killed.
I actually spoke to Mario about that, and, yeah, he was just like, "Lisa, I was there.
I was racing that day.
It was one of the saddest days in racing," you know? Really dangerous back then.
In those days, not a lot of safety in cars and not a lot of safe gear, and those cars were I mean, those guys were going 150 for sure.
So, it was pretty sad.
Some of these up here are from Ferrari, and another series I was in, EXR series last season.
And I was amateur champion for the series, so that was cool.
So, I earned the most points for that in all the races.
And these were the different tracks that I received.
One was Spring Mountain.
That's in Nevada.
Sonoma.
Fontana and Laguna Seca.
I mean, having these around keeps me in that mindset of knowing all that hard work that I love to do really paid off for me, and it's just a good reminder.
And I like my daughters seeing it too.
I think it's good inspiration for them to see that, "Yeah, Mom, she's always at the track but look, it's worth it.
" I will give it my all.
I'm really excited and I absolutely wanna win.
I talk a big game, but the reality is, the Cutlass is not running.
And it's really, really getting to me.
It's starting to piss me off.
None of this stuff was designed or made to fit for this car.
and we're not engineers and we're making it fit.
That's our problem.
I mean, it's not a little, it don't close.
It don't close at all.
This is a Frankenstein.
It's gonna look like Frankenstein.
All we need to do is put the bolts on the side of the car to match a Frankenstein.
Hey, Johnny's here.
Close the hood.
Johnny is a Brotherhood member who's been a brother member for a long time, and he loves to race.
When he heard we were building the Cutlass, he started talking shit about the Cutlass and talking shit about his car.
So, we told him, bring it.
I forgot your toilet paper.
Because I know you're probably shitting on yourself.
Goddamn.
- All right, you gonna be there Tuesday? - Where at? We've got to race some Ferrari somewhere.
I don't know.
- Where at? - I have no idea.
But we're gonna go race a Ferrari.
But you're gonna be on my side that night.
You're gonna be talking for me.
His tires cost more than the car.
- I believe that.
- It's true.
I think my Jordans cost more than your car.
Because besides the Ferrari kicking your ass, I'm gonna kick you in the ass if you lose.
So, you better not lose.
I'm not losing to a Ferrari.
I'd rather lose to you than a Ferrari.
I bet you anything I can start this car in two seconds.
I bet you could.
Fabian's trying to get that car ready by Tuesday to race this Ferrari.
I really doubt it, but at the same time, I've seen Fabian do miracles.
Fuel pump ain't cutting on.
You can't even hear it.
I feel extremely defeated and frustrated.
But I'm not gonna let it get the best of me.
But it's starting to.
So, it's pissing me off.
We've not happy.
But we've got to get this thing fixed.
We like being heroes.
Don't like being zeroes.
Twenty-five bucks can't be wrong, though.
Can't go wrong with 25 Fernando is a really good tech.
He knows a lot about how to wire and how to diagnose.
So, he's gonna check the ECU and see what's going on and hopefully we can get this thing fired up.
And we're gonna connect this cool scope that Fernie was nice enough to bring.
Probably cost about a million bucks.
- How much does it cost exactly, Fernie? - Like ten grand.
Ten grand! All right, so let's start there.
It's nice and silver.
Slide it over, some heat shrink.
Beautiful.
All right, man, injectors are wired.
So, when the ECU in the engine is not communicating, there's just no way of knowing what is wrong with it.
There's no way of knowing what it needs.
It's basically like a baby crying and not knowing what it needs.
You can't communicate with it, so, it's like speaking baby language.
So, the computer clears that up for me.
It tells me, "Okay, it needs more spark.
It needs fuel.
It's not getting a signal from here.
It's not getting a signal from there.
" So, it's a language that the computer translates to me.
We got fuel? Yeah, fuel pump's going, we're connected.
So now, all we need to do is crank.
- Crank it and we'll see.
- Crank and see.
- We'll see if it syncs, it starts.
- All right.
Here goes.
Gonna give it This is it.
What was that? - Is the - Is it in gear? Is it in gear? Yeah, it's in neutral.
Try it again.
It's, like, stuck on the trans or something.
Right now, at this point, I can't even think what else I can do.
- I just have to get it running and fueled.
- That's gonna be fixed like that tomorrow.
- Hopefully.
- I don't see why not.
I'm telling you, we're gonna need a shot of nitrous.
I think I need a shot of vodka.
That's what I need.
And tequila.
I notice in racing, the guys that come up to me just kind of hang back and don't say anything until you can prove yourself in a respectable way in the lineup.
And if you can't, they're not gonna give you the time of day.
And then there are those few that Even if you do, they don't want to acknowledge it.
And Ferrari really calls out women in racing, which is kind of cool.
Like yesterday, in my last race, there was a little girl.
She was about eight, and her mom and dad were standing there with the camera.
And I had the trophy, and the little girl came up to me and asked if she could hold the trophy.
So, I kneeled down with her, and the mom goes, "She loves watching you race.
" It's moments like that where you're like, "If I can just make that little girl feel like, hey, I'm a girl, and I'm doing this.
You can do the same.
" It's a great feeling.
When I pull up on race day, I'm sure the guys are gonna be just like, "Okay.
" They'll be seeing a Ferrari and expecting a man, but they'll be shocked when they see me.
Right, you want to crank it? You see where it says RPM right here? See if it moves from stall.
It's not picking up the RPM from the distributor.
No, stall.
It says stall.
Hang on.
Let me call John.
The distributor is what we need to get the spark to make the car run.
Without it, we're screwed.
The car's not gonna run.
Hey, John, quick question.
Can I use this distributor you got in the shop? Our distributor took a shit.
So, let me hear back from you.
If I don't hear back from you, I'll go ahead and use it and replace it later.
Thanks, buddy.
All right, ready? Here we go.
All right.
Go again? Let it go.
One more time.
Something ain't right.
We got no power.
No power.
Turn it on? Because the relay's over here clicking, and it's reading it.
Yeah, no spark.
For the last few weeks we've been working on this car, everything that could go wrong on this car has gone wrong.
We got the car to start.
It was running good.
It was running great.
Now we've got everything to do all over again, because we can't figure out what's wrong with the car.
- Ready? - Yeah.
- Again? - Yeah.
- One more time? - Yeah.
You happy now? You did it.
- Yeah, finally, so.
- Finally.
Hey, it's worth it.
Nobody gets it.
This is nothing.
This is just the beginning of the beginning - of the beginning of an ass-whooping.
- Yeah.
But everyone who doubted us, they can bite me.
So, we proved them all wrong.
This thing has come to life.
It is an animal.
It's not gonna be a regular car.
It's a monster.
What you're seeing now is just the beginning.
We're not done.
I'll be excited when we kick that Ferrari's ass.
So, looking at what we've done so far with the wheels, the three batteries, little odds and ends, we've saved a little over 300 pounds.
With me in it, it's 5,450.
This is a 5,500-pound car.
But it's still, it's three car lengths faster than we were, so, we're headed in a positive direction.
- Everything ready? - Yeah.
Cross your fingers.
You did it.
I love you.
Thank you.
We lost what, three, 400 pounds.
We gained a couple hundred horsepower.
We're gonna beat some fucking ass out there.
Let's see who can beat up this big bitch.
My car's not running yet, but fortunately I have the best team on it, so, I know it'll be up and running tomorrow.
And I know I can win.
I want to win because I want this car to win.
I really feel like it's more about the car than about the person driving it, and I want to just have the thrill of driving the winning car and bragging that, "Yeah, it was a Ferrari.
" I don't intend on losing.
I don't want to lose.
I don't want to hear about losing for the next five, ten years.
You can win 100 races but that one loss? You'll hear about it for the rest of your life.
I want to make my family, the Brotherhood of Street Racers, really proud.
I know this car has enough horsepower to beat any car.
And I know I'll never beat a supercar going around a turn or I'll beat a supercar on the freeway.
I don't know that.
But I'll tell you what, from light to light, I sure will give them hell.
You know what? We made it, and I'm happy I'm here.
You know, I'm happy.
If somebody beats me, I'm gonna give them a big hug and congratulate them.
Because I know what it's gonna take to beat this car.
Looks like we got a fellow lowrider.
We've been at this all-night long.
We got Frankenstein going.
And now Frankenstein's gonna terrorize the village.
This guy might have tricks.
I like his style, though.
That thing passes inspection? Jesus.
I want to shake this guy's hand.
This is a sleeper.
- How you doing? - Doing good.
How you guys doing? Good.
- I like your Impala.
- Oh, man, I love what you've got.
The nice touches you've done to this thing.
- I'm Scott.
- I'm Fabian.
- Nice to meet you.
- It's just literally a throwaway car.
Yeah, it's nice.
It's nice nice throwaway sleeper.
What the fuck is that? What's up with that? That thing is bad-ass.
That's a sleeper.
He don't even want to start it.
He doesn't even want us to hear it.
What a bad-ass.
Dude, this guy's total sleeper mode.
What a dickhead.
Start it up! Motherfucker.
Yo, yo, yo.
Let's go take a look at Team Celica.
- Peanut.
- Peanut, Javier.
- Scott.
- Scoot.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Manny.
Man, you guys didn't even want to start it for us? You guys are good.
- Well - It's stock.
It's just a stock.
Yeah, I see it.
I see.
They don't know that it actually has some issues, so, I'm just gonna keep toying with them.
I don't know of anybody else around here.
You know, it's just I lost connection.
All I need now is a red Ferrari with a female driving it with big boobs.
I'd be fucked.
No chance.
If it's yellow and a guy, we got him.
Okay, boys.
Let's see what you've got.
What is that? We're in We're in good shape boys.
It's yellow, with a fucking Rolls Royce behind it.
What a sick bastard.
It's a girl driving it.
You ain't getting beat by a girl.
No, I'm driving.
Well, it's yellow.
So, that's I had a mental block about red.
So, I'm feeling good.
Let's hope it's not a female.
Okay, hi.
Oh, my God.
Jesus Christ.
I knew it.
I felt it.
You know, I felt it.
Yellow and a female.
Oh, my God, I swear, if I lose Come on, we should Maybe we should all hug her.
Please.
I'm gonna throw up.
- Hi, I'm Lisa.
- Hello, there.
I'm Scott.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm Fabian, nice to meet you.
- Fabian? Nice to meet you too.
- Yeah.
- So, you guys had fun preparing? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of fun.
- What'd you do, detail it, wax it? - I think your job is gonna be - Was a lot more fun than what mine was.
- Yeah, yeah, I know.
I didn't have to do much.
I know you didn't have to do much, you took it to the car wash.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Being a woman in racing, I've been prepped a little mentally, and had situations where I, kind of, get that shocked look.
So, I wasn't completely surprised.
But it was fun seeing the lineup of guys all together, and they all had the same look.
- Does it look souped up to you? - No.
- It's stock? - I think so.
Holy shit! That looks like a 10,000-dollar steering wheel.
It is set on race.
She's Mario Andretti's daughter? - No way, really? - No, that's what I feel.
She's somebody serious.
Failure is not part of my life.
I will not accept it, and if anything does fail, I will strive to turn that around into a success.
All right, that was the last test.
Before we get into the drivers' meeting, I want to unfortunately mention that one of our competitors was unable to run today.
Sometimes you do everything right, you do everything you can, and you can't run.
The reality of this was that we had big issues and big problems.
And that was with the ECU, the computer for the vehicle was just fried.
Therefore, it's not even powering anything in the vehicle anymore.
It's like cutting your head off.
Man, if I could just prove to everybody and my brother that I could beat a Ferrari, it'd be so beautiful.
They're not gonna intimidate me.
They're not gonna be in my head at all.
I'm only worried about me and this car, and that's where I'm gonna be racing.
I'm gonna be racing myself and that's how you win.
This is completely out of my realm.
I've never done drag racing, so, I'm really looking forward to this experience.
We represent budget.
We represent anybody can do it.
You know, you don't have to have a lot of money to do it.
We put this together with no money.
Her tires cost more than a whole car.
I've got a little bit of a tentative reaction with that Impala, because it was like, "Oh my, there's some stuff going on there.
" So, there's some competition over there for sure.
I don't know about the Cutlass.
We're just gonna have to wait and see, but I know he's ready to go and ready to rock, and he wants to win too.
So, he's gonna give it his best.
We're gonna race her and the car.
And that's the thing.
If we have a Ferrari with an okay driver, we're gonna slaughter it.
But if we got a Ferrari with a good driver, it's gonna be a race.
I'm gonna go for her throat just like she's any other man.
I'm not gonna think male or female.
I'm gonna go after her.
I'm not scared of this Ferrari.
This Impala's gonna beat its ass.
Failure's not an option.
Yay, I got a first place.
Beautiful.
- Hey, baby.
- My God.
I love you, guys.
I'm shocked and sad I didn't win the race.
I did it for my brother Tony, but I know he's smiling at me right now.
Hey, yeah, I was just glad to see them, like, two cars in the background, yes.
I would have been disqualified.
I left so early, and the car went - And it left.
- You got third.
- You got third.
I got last.
- You're NA.
Yeah, well, it was girl power all the way.
- I'm DNF.
Did not finish.
- DNFs.
And I'm still upset, because I know that if my car was working and running the way it was supposed to be running, I have no doubt that I would've beat everybody on that, including the supercar.
- How fast is this son of a gun, huh? - Fucking bad-ass.
This bad-ass car? Fast car, huh? After the quarter-mile, she probably hit 160, 170.
Do you know how fast she was going? I had a great time.
It was a blast.
Those guys on each side of me, and not knowing what was going to happen.
And I felt on the right, he had a good launch, then the Ferrari just did its magic and took off.
It was a fun experience, drag racing.
Never done it.
When I seen her passing me, I kind of felt my brother laugh at me for a second, I think, I don't know.
Or it was me laughing at myself but I felt something.
Yeah.
How much she beat me by? Ten, 12 car lengths, she probably did.
I don't know, I let go of the gas when I saw her ass so far ahead.
I'm like, "Holy shit.
" She is just tough as any man out here.
You know, I really respect her.
For me and the Brotherhood, we're mostly wanting to tell Willie a story.
We beat ourselves up to get here and we still never quit.
And that's the bottom line.
It feels great winning the race, not just for my car and my driving skills, but for all the women out there.
It shows we can be as good as any man in a race car.
We've been through so much together it's almost like, I think that's my wife, you know? Uh-oh.
Because I'm a street racer, when somebody talks shit to me, there's my car.
What do you want to do? When they're laughing at you, you brought a knife to a gunfight? No, we brought the warship.
This is my drug, you know? This is what gets me high, making this car better and better and better.
Thank you.
We've raced Ferraris in the past, and it's not been a problem, and the Ferrari guy can't understand how he lost.
And yet he doesn't realize he never had a chance.
- Start it up.
- What a dickhead.
It's gonna boil down to the driver.
It boils down to the tenths of a second.
I wouldn't even be in this race if I didn't think I had a chance.
That's just me.
I'm a confident fucker.
When I set out to build this car, I set out to build it the best in every possible category.
The best paint, best interior, best motor.
I never wanted to lose at anything, so, I I put in 150,000 in this car.
And I made it the most powerful LT1 motor in the country.
Back in 2004, my brother and I bought Red's Hydraulics.
We were car guys.
Yes, we knew about cars, but not so much about the low ride, and it's a different culture.
Low riders are a type of car, the ones that are nearly touching the ground.
But it's the hydraulics that boost them up and down, like a little dance.
This car was called the Black Widow.
This car was a world champion for over 12 years.
It would fly all four wheels off the ground as high as my forehead.
It would hit back bumper within two hits.
It would do side to side.
It would dance around.
The switches controlled the hydraulic pump, so, we actually drove the car outside on a switch panel.
It's what made our company famous.
We had this on the circuit for over 20 years.
And I retired it, and I parked it back here.
And now this is what a $40,000 paint job looks like after ten years.
The car was a representation of us, all our life.
My dad was a mechanic.
My dad loved cars.
We loved cars.
Seven years ago, my brother and I were collecting cars, and we had a dream of taking these cars, and rebuilding them, and bringing them back and showing them off.
But when my brother passed away six years ago, I parked everything.
I pulled everything to the back yard.
Toward the end, my brother said, "You know what? Let's buy an Impala.
Let's fix it up.
" Well, he started fixing it and he never really drove the car.
I remember he put the stereo system in it, and we were picking up from the stereo shop.
He throws me the keys and he says, "Hey, you know what? Jump in, let's go for a ride.
" So, throughout the whole trip home, my brother's asking me, "How does the car feel? Is the car fast?" And I remember, many times, it was parked in his garage.
And I asked him, "You know what? Why aren't you driving the car?" You know, "Why aren't you driving the car?" And he says, "You know what? I'm waiting for you to finish your Impala.
When you finish your Impala, we'll drive it together.
" I never finished my Impala and my brother never drove that car.
And, you know, when he passed away, I thought about it, thought about it, how, you know, here I am, wants the best of the best and try to build the nicest car.
But you know what? There comes a time when you've just got to enjoy it.
Last five years, I took my brother's Impala, and I tried to make it the nicest Impala in the country.
I touched every nut and bolt in that car in my brother's honor and name.
I built it to be fast.
You know, you can't really give up.
And I know my brother didn't want me to give up.
And I'm just doing it slow now.
And I feel my brother with me and I'm gonna do it in his honor.
Twice a week we come here, you know, pay our respects to Tony and Dad.
And this is where we come see him every week.
I'm gonna go over there and give him a kiss.
This Tuesday, I'm gonna race a Ferrari.
I know I'm stupid, but You know what? It's a short life and, you know, I love you.
I'm having fun.
I love you.
I can't wait to see you guys.
You know what? When I first built it, I brought the car here for my brother.
And I sat on that bench and cried, and tried to make sense to me, saying, "You know what? You only live once, man.
You only live once.
" And I'm doing this, I'm doing this out of pride and honor, you know? I have to win for my dad and brother Tony.
It means a lot.
So, is this like an interrogation? Do I need my lawyer? The story of Fabian began in Burbank.
When I was little, we had a neighbor that worked on cars, and I was always with him, helping him out, and He was really cool, and I enjoyed doing it.
And then when we went to Burbank, we went to Van Nuys Boulevard.
And Van Nuys Boulevard was just happening.
It was like nothing you ever saw.
The cars were amazing.
The people were amazing.
We had a lot of fun, and we were 12, 13, 14 years old going down there.
The first car I got was a V8 Vega.
I crashed it not too soon after I got it, because it was just a handful.
Learned about cars the hard way, by putting that car back together, and then started going out and racing that car and getting hustled.
We got hustled by some guys in Downey, we got hustled by some guys in Linwood area.
And these guys told us about a place that people would race on the street, legally.
And we said, "Bullshit, there's no place like that.
" So, we went to go check it out.
And there was.
It was called Terminal Island.
And it was a street.
And everybody was there, and Big Willie was there, the first time I met him.
Now, I got to make this clear⦠Our main goal at that racetrack Our main product that we want to produce is brotherhood.
Everybody understand that? Let me hear it.
Now, what are we trying to produce? - Brotherhood! - All right.
Willie's thing was don't fight each other with guns, knives or fists.
Take each other on with your cars.
And it could be your cars, foot race, motorcycles, whatever.
And then you come back and do it again.
So, a lot of guys would stop gang banging.
They'd stop, you know It was an amazing place.
Crime in Los Angeles went down 60 percent.
All of a sudden, there was no drive-by shootings anymore.
Now Terminal Island's gone.
We're fighting for a safer place to street race.
- What's up, man? - Don't be calling no We've only got a few members here, but this is family.
This is where family is and family begins, and we all act like family.
We have our problems, we have our disputes and at the same time we all love each other.
You know, we're all about brotherhood which means friendship.
We don't care what nationality you are, whether you're white, black, green, purple, red.
Cars bring us all together.
Everybody took on something to do and made it their project in helping Willie do what he had to do.
And then he got sick, and he didn't wanna be around anymore.
And we couldn't change that.
And the sad part was, he ended up passing away.
It's just hard.
I do miss Willie a lot.
Because to replace Willie, it took about ten of us and he was one guy.
I've got a 1984 Cutlass.
The model is POS which stands for Piece of Shit.
This car here, we found it literally at a wrecking yard.
We got this for 400 dollars and saved a bunch of money.
So, when we went to go look at this car, we had to get the sheriffs to evict the family of cats that were living in there.
And surprisingly, they were living next door to some rats, so, I don't know how that worked.
So, we had to get rid of those guys, too.
So, we cleaned this thing out as best as we could, and There's just a lot of stuff in there that was rusted.
It had been sitting out, not protected.
So, we had a lot of things, hoses, brake lines, tires.
I mean, just a lot of stuff that gets ruined with age, just from sitting.
We got zip ties for this car.
A lot of stuffs just held on just to make it look like it's held on.
Some of the stuff has flown off when we ran the car before, because these are old plastics, and they're brittle, they're falling off, so, the chrome's coming off of it.
And then we've got our little setup to hold the trunk open, because like I said, it's an old car.
Nothing in it works.
And then we took this thing because nobody would be afraid of it, and we've upgraded it to a car now that'll do 135 miles an hour at least.
And basically, hurt a lot of people's feelings because it's such an ugly, old car.
They wouldn't expect it to be that fast.
Sleepers are more or less cars that you just don't expect, a car that you look at, saying, "That can't be that fast.
" I mean, when a guy spends half a million dollars or a quarter million dollars on a car, he knows what he's getting.
But when he puts it up against a car that looks like it's only worth 500 dollars, they don't know what to expect from it.
But people like it, because it's just such a surprise.
You're just going, "Where did that come from?" And the car, you know All of a sudden, you've got a wolf in sheep's clothing.
And it comes out of nowhere.
You woke up the beast.
I consider myself a car guy to the extreme.
As you can see by my living quarters yeah, it's what I'm about.
So, when you get bit by the car bug, it's just something that you can't get rid of.
I can't explain it, but it's just by owning the car itself, you have this feeling of pleasure, you know? This is what you love.
And you come out here and look at it, and it just makes you I don't know.
It just gives me pleasure.
Almost like a car hoarder if you want to call it that.
I also just keep everything that I take off a car, you know? I store it here.
This is my organized mess.
I know where everything is at.
I know what I have.
I have everything here from 1930s to 1950s, from Japanese parts, to go-kart parts.
I mean, you name it.
It's so much stuff.
Turbo piping.
Jeez, I mean, I can tell you where all this stuff is.
I don't want to throw anything away.
You never know when you're gonna need it.
Now, the way I got into drifting was I met other people at car shows that introduced me to Japanese videos on drifting.
And I thought it was fascinating, so, I gave it a shot.
I was the only Mexican around.
The rest of the guys were either, you know, Asian or Japanese, because that's where it came from, the Japanese sport.
And I'm a very competitive type of guy, so I said, "Hey, if these guys can do it, I'm gonna do it.
" To me, drifting is a balance.
It takes skill, it takes the amount of gas, amount of pedal you want to put into it, braking, steering angle.
All that has to be perfect for your car to slide the way you want it to slide.
So, I've had the car bug all my life.
So, it's a heart with a turbo in it.
My turbo's powering the heart.
This is my 1983 Toyota Supra.
It's been with me since 1989.
I know, I was like an eighth-grader, something like that.
But it's just a cool ride.
And this is the baby that's gonna race on Tuesday.
Well, my car's a sleeper car because it wasn't meant to be as fast as it is now.
The upgrades to it are just insane and the power-to-weight ratio makes it like a super, super, super fast car.
But people don't think it's going to be fast until they actually hear it and see it, and then they're very surprised.
So, this is just Japanese style but with taste, you know? You know, it's rewarding to me because I built it, I drive it.
As a builder, you want to see results.
And it's funny, because we've been through so much together, the car and I.
It's almost like I think that's my wife, you know? Hey, Manny, where are you? Hey, guess what we're racing? - What? - Check this out.
A Ferrari 488GTB, 2017.
That's gonna be funny.
We're gonna make this guy's life miserable when he loses.
I can't wait to see the look on his face when he sees what he's racing.
- Yeah.
- Wait 'till he gets a load of us.
I want to know how fast this Ferrari is.
488, mid-engine, 3.
9 liter Oh, twin turbo as well.
It's pretty fast.
It runs 10s.
- It looks nice, huh? Holy shit.
- Seven speed, dual clutch.
I'm gonna scare the shit out of him with my exhaust, though.
I'm gonna pull up beating, loud as hell with the stereo, and then I'm gonna drown him out with my exhaust.
Who is this guy? Let's just say he's this billionaire who owns this Ferrari, who probably He probably bought it yesterday, you know? And he said, "Hey, you know, I'm down to race, whatever you want.
" Let's just hope that that's what he did.
- Right, right.
- Right, man.
- Let's hope he doesn't have his - Straight up fight.
Straight up stick shift, clutch, gears, you got him.
Yeah, for sure.
This was the car that I never thought I would have, so, it's very special to me and I treat it very well, and it puts me in a great mood.
Every time I hear it start up, I love the sound.
You just keep reminding yourself you're in a Ferrari when you look at the little horsey on the steering wheel.
It's just, like, wow, this is my car.
It's pretty cool.
The idea of actually having that car was amazing to me, so I'd put on my Bocelli music, and I'd go run through the canyons with it, and just imagine myself racing.
I'm driving the 488 Ferrari, twin turbo V8.
I think they did a really good job on creating a supercar that you can drive on the streets, and yet take it out on the track and get the full benefits of really what the car's meant to do.
Yeah, when people see this car, it definitely draws attention.
When I see it, it attracts the eye.
The lines are beautiful.
Everyone loves seeing a Ferrari drive by, no matter who you are.
Grew up in the desert, and my dad was always into desert sports, motor sports.
And he'd always work on the cars on the weekends, and our bonding time, I think, for me growing up was being with him under the car, handing him wrenches, and having the radio on and fixing things.
Any way we could find a way around and do car stuff, go on rides, speed down freeways at night, we would do that together.
We'd say, okay, you can't drive unless you're doing at least 85.
All those moments kind of together, just gave me that thrill of speed and cars and building engines.
It really all kind of stemmed from from him.
I remember when Lisa and I were dating and she would beat me in just about everything we'd try to do.
So, it was like hanging out with a buddy.
I had a motorcycle and I said, "Hey, let's hop on the back of my motorcycle and we'll go down the street and get an ice cream or something.
" And I was pretty reluctant, but I thought, "Okay, well, I've got to do this, because I do like this guy.
" And So, I got on the back and we barely got a few blocks, and I was really grabbing on to him because it was freaking me out.
- Like, "Wait, does he see that car?" - We came back.
I got, she got off the motorcycle, I got off the motorcycle.
Took off her helmet or I took mine off and I said, "So, I was pretty good, right? Do you feel good about riding on the back?" She goes, "No, it still scares me to death.
" I said, "Well, can I jump on?" And he goes, "What do you mean?" I go, "Well, can I take your bike for a spin?" And he was really caught off guard by that.
I said, "I thought you were afraid to ride on a motorcycle.
" She goes, "No, I'm afraid to ride on the back of a motorcycle when I'm not driving.
" And she took that thing and popped a wheelie and took off.
He was just like, "Oh, my God, you didn't tell me you rode bikes.
" She's always been pedal to the metal.
Leadfoots, mechanics, understanding, coordinated, and then she says she wants to race.
Made sense.
So, I joined the Ferrari club and actually learned how to race.
These cars have been thought out, blueprinted out beyond genius level.
So, to see a sleeper off the gun next to this car on a drag race, quarter-mile straightaway, that's gonna be really interesting to see what you can put together to go up against one of these.
Ready? This is probably the most intricate build I've done in quite a long time.
It's almost no expense spared.
There's just so many upgrades I did to the car that I think are super cool, and I'm super impressed with my level of work I've done to this car.
The car's been running fine up until I had to make the necessary changes to create a massive amount of horsepower to keep up or beat a supercar.
And it's just giving me nothing but problems.
Right now, we don't have any power to the ECU which is the computer in the engine.
And it's not communicating with my laptop.
It won't tell my engine what it needs to do to start.
I think I have the right people under my wing that are gonna make it happen.
So, in a sense, I'm really not too stressed out about that.
The thing I really am stressed out about is whether or not I'm gonna break or what's this thing gonna do when it turns on and how it's gonna react, and all that stuff.
If it doesn't get turned on, we don't get to race.
And it's not that far away.
- Hey, Peanut.
- Yeah? It's not a car show, it's a car race.
And I'm not gonna go there looking like a hoopty.
I'm still gonna go there looking like I'm proud of my car and what I've done to my car.
You know, we're at a point, we've been at the damn engine shop for the last month, trying to make as much horsepower as we can out of this car.
We're at that max.
So, we've got to lose some weight.
Peanut, you've taken off the wheels.
Let's weigh these fuckers.
Well, let me get it off first.
Let's see how much this race wheel weighs.
- Let's see how much you weight.
- Me? - I think I might - Holy shit, 245.
It's accurate.
I think I might have to drive your car.
Let's see.
- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, shit.
If Peanut drives, it's one car length faster.
He's 100 pounds less.
Okay.
This wheel weighs under 50 pounds, so, like, 45 pounds.
Let's see what my factory wheels weight.
Seventy 75 pounds.
It's almost, pretty much just changing out these two wheels gives it almost a three-quarter, almost a car length faster, just by these two wheels.
I could take out the back seats, every battery, all the subwoofers, all the amps.
Shit, I can probably pull out 1000 pounds.
All right, so after you finish this, we've got to lose a little bit more weight, right? But not me.
I'm not gonna lose no fucking weight.
- I guess.
- The batteries.
- Depends on how serious it is back there.
- You need to keep one of them in there.
Because I need to still start the car and have a little bit of a stereo.
Well, if I can slide these out of here without electrocuting myself.
- So, we're gonna take out three, right? - Yeah, three.
Save the easiest one for the main.
Holy cow.
- It ain't heavy.
- Jesus! Ready to weigh this sucker? Oh, good.
Fifty pounds.
So, four batteries, 200 pounds.
That's another two car lengths.
I'm confident that my 1996 Impala will beat any super car out there.
I changed everything on the car except for the transmission.
So tomorrow, I'm gonna pull out the transmission.
- You're working? - Yeah.
I've got two days.
Two days, I'll replace the whole damn car if I had to.
I know Tony and Papa are proud of you.
- Thank you.
- He's watching over you.
And he'll be sitting in that car right next to you in that race.
- Yeah.
I don't want to fail him.
- You're not.
I had a great uncle and his name was Don Branson and he's a hall of fame sprint car, midget car guy.
He also did some Formula 1.
And he was racing with Mario Andretti's partner, Dick Atkins.
And they crashed, and both of them were killed.
I actually spoke to Mario about that, and, yeah, he was just like, "Lisa, I was there.
I was racing that day.
It was one of the saddest days in racing," you know? Really dangerous back then.
In those days, not a lot of safety in cars and not a lot of safe gear, and those cars were I mean, those guys were going 150 for sure.
So, it was pretty sad.
Some of these up here are from Ferrari, and another series I was in, EXR series last season.
And I was amateur champion for the series, so that was cool.
So, I earned the most points for that in all the races.
And these were the different tracks that I received.
One was Spring Mountain.
That's in Nevada.
Sonoma.
Fontana and Laguna Seca.
I mean, having these around keeps me in that mindset of knowing all that hard work that I love to do really paid off for me, and it's just a good reminder.
And I like my daughters seeing it too.
I think it's good inspiration for them to see that, "Yeah, Mom, she's always at the track but look, it's worth it.
" I will give it my all.
I'm really excited and I absolutely wanna win.
I talk a big game, but the reality is, the Cutlass is not running.
And it's really, really getting to me.
It's starting to piss me off.
None of this stuff was designed or made to fit for this car.
and we're not engineers and we're making it fit.
That's our problem.
I mean, it's not a little, it don't close.
It don't close at all.
This is a Frankenstein.
It's gonna look like Frankenstein.
All we need to do is put the bolts on the side of the car to match a Frankenstein.
Hey, Johnny's here.
Close the hood.
Johnny is a Brotherhood member who's been a brother member for a long time, and he loves to race.
When he heard we were building the Cutlass, he started talking shit about the Cutlass and talking shit about his car.
So, we told him, bring it.
I forgot your toilet paper.
Because I know you're probably shitting on yourself.
Goddamn.
- All right, you gonna be there Tuesday? - Where at? We've got to race some Ferrari somewhere.
I don't know.
- Where at? - I have no idea.
But we're gonna go race a Ferrari.
But you're gonna be on my side that night.
You're gonna be talking for me.
His tires cost more than the car.
- I believe that.
- It's true.
I think my Jordans cost more than your car.
Because besides the Ferrari kicking your ass, I'm gonna kick you in the ass if you lose.
So, you better not lose.
I'm not losing to a Ferrari.
I'd rather lose to you than a Ferrari.
I bet you anything I can start this car in two seconds.
I bet you could.
Fabian's trying to get that car ready by Tuesday to race this Ferrari.
I really doubt it, but at the same time, I've seen Fabian do miracles.
Fuel pump ain't cutting on.
You can't even hear it.
I feel extremely defeated and frustrated.
But I'm not gonna let it get the best of me.
But it's starting to.
So, it's pissing me off.
We've not happy.
But we've got to get this thing fixed.
We like being heroes.
Don't like being zeroes.
Twenty-five bucks can't be wrong, though.
Can't go wrong with 25 Fernando is a really good tech.
He knows a lot about how to wire and how to diagnose.
So, he's gonna check the ECU and see what's going on and hopefully we can get this thing fired up.
And we're gonna connect this cool scope that Fernie was nice enough to bring.
Probably cost about a million bucks.
- How much does it cost exactly, Fernie? - Like ten grand.
Ten grand! All right, so let's start there.
It's nice and silver.
Slide it over, some heat shrink.
Beautiful.
All right, man, injectors are wired.
So, when the ECU in the engine is not communicating, there's just no way of knowing what is wrong with it.
There's no way of knowing what it needs.
It's basically like a baby crying and not knowing what it needs.
You can't communicate with it, so, it's like speaking baby language.
So, the computer clears that up for me.
It tells me, "Okay, it needs more spark.
It needs fuel.
It's not getting a signal from here.
It's not getting a signal from there.
" So, it's a language that the computer translates to me.
We got fuel? Yeah, fuel pump's going, we're connected.
So now, all we need to do is crank.
- Crank it and we'll see.
- Crank and see.
- We'll see if it syncs, it starts.
- All right.
Here goes.
Gonna give it This is it.
What was that? - Is the - Is it in gear? Is it in gear? Yeah, it's in neutral.
Try it again.
It's, like, stuck on the trans or something.
Right now, at this point, I can't even think what else I can do.
- I just have to get it running and fueled.
- That's gonna be fixed like that tomorrow.
- Hopefully.
- I don't see why not.
I'm telling you, we're gonna need a shot of nitrous.
I think I need a shot of vodka.
That's what I need.
And tequila.
I notice in racing, the guys that come up to me just kind of hang back and don't say anything until you can prove yourself in a respectable way in the lineup.
And if you can't, they're not gonna give you the time of day.
And then there are those few that Even if you do, they don't want to acknowledge it.
And Ferrari really calls out women in racing, which is kind of cool.
Like yesterday, in my last race, there was a little girl.
She was about eight, and her mom and dad were standing there with the camera.
And I had the trophy, and the little girl came up to me and asked if she could hold the trophy.
So, I kneeled down with her, and the mom goes, "She loves watching you race.
" It's moments like that where you're like, "If I can just make that little girl feel like, hey, I'm a girl, and I'm doing this.
You can do the same.
" It's a great feeling.
When I pull up on race day, I'm sure the guys are gonna be just like, "Okay.
" They'll be seeing a Ferrari and expecting a man, but they'll be shocked when they see me.
Right, you want to crank it? You see where it says RPM right here? See if it moves from stall.
It's not picking up the RPM from the distributor.
No, stall.
It says stall.
Hang on.
Let me call John.
The distributor is what we need to get the spark to make the car run.
Without it, we're screwed.
The car's not gonna run.
Hey, John, quick question.
Can I use this distributor you got in the shop? Our distributor took a shit.
So, let me hear back from you.
If I don't hear back from you, I'll go ahead and use it and replace it later.
Thanks, buddy.
All right, ready? Here we go.
All right.
Go again? Let it go.
One more time.
Something ain't right.
We got no power.
No power.
Turn it on? Because the relay's over here clicking, and it's reading it.
Yeah, no spark.
For the last few weeks we've been working on this car, everything that could go wrong on this car has gone wrong.
We got the car to start.
It was running good.
It was running great.
Now we've got everything to do all over again, because we can't figure out what's wrong with the car.
- Ready? - Yeah.
- Again? - Yeah.
- One more time? - Yeah.
You happy now? You did it.
- Yeah, finally, so.
- Finally.
Hey, it's worth it.
Nobody gets it.
This is nothing.
This is just the beginning of the beginning - of the beginning of an ass-whooping.
- Yeah.
But everyone who doubted us, they can bite me.
So, we proved them all wrong.
This thing has come to life.
It is an animal.
It's not gonna be a regular car.
It's a monster.
What you're seeing now is just the beginning.
We're not done.
I'll be excited when we kick that Ferrari's ass.
So, looking at what we've done so far with the wheels, the three batteries, little odds and ends, we've saved a little over 300 pounds.
With me in it, it's 5,450.
This is a 5,500-pound car.
But it's still, it's three car lengths faster than we were, so, we're headed in a positive direction.
- Everything ready? - Yeah.
Cross your fingers.
You did it.
I love you.
Thank you.
We lost what, three, 400 pounds.
We gained a couple hundred horsepower.
We're gonna beat some fucking ass out there.
Let's see who can beat up this big bitch.
My car's not running yet, but fortunately I have the best team on it, so, I know it'll be up and running tomorrow.
And I know I can win.
I want to win because I want this car to win.
I really feel like it's more about the car than about the person driving it, and I want to just have the thrill of driving the winning car and bragging that, "Yeah, it was a Ferrari.
" I don't intend on losing.
I don't want to lose.
I don't want to hear about losing for the next five, ten years.
You can win 100 races but that one loss? You'll hear about it for the rest of your life.
I want to make my family, the Brotherhood of Street Racers, really proud.
I know this car has enough horsepower to beat any car.
And I know I'll never beat a supercar going around a turn or I'll beat a supercar on the freeway.
I don't know that.
But I'll tell you what, from light to light, I sure will give them hell.
You know what? We made it, and I'm happy I'm here.
You know, I'm happy.
If somebody beats me, I'm gonna give them a big hug and congratulate them.
Because I know what it's gonna take to beat this car.
Looks like we got a fellow lowrider.
We've been at this all-night long.
We got Frankenstein going.
And now Frankenstein's gonna terrorize the village.
This guy might have tricks.
I like his style, though.
That thing passes inspection? Jesus.
I want to shake this guy's hand.
This is a sleeper.
- How you doing? - Doing good.
How you guys doing? Good.
- I like your Impala.
- Oh, man, I love what you've got.
The nice touches you've done to this thing.
- I'm Scott.
- I'm Fabian.
- Nice to meet you.
- It's just literally a throwaway car.
Yeah, it's nice.
It's nice nice throwaway sleeper.
What the fuck is that? What's up with that? That thing is bad-ass.
That's a sleeper.
He don't even want to start it.
He doesn't even want us to hear it.
What a bad-ass.
Dude, this guy's total sleeper mode.
What a dickhead.
Start it up! Motherfucker.
Yo, yo, yo.
Let's go take a look at Team Celica.
- Peanut.
- Peanut, Javier.
- Scott.
- Scoot.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, Manny.
Man, you guys didn't even want to start it for us? You guys are good.
- Well - It's stock.
It's just a stock.
Yeah, I see it.
I see.
They don't know that it actually has some issues, so, I'm just gonna keep toying with them.
I don't know of anybody else around here.
You know, it's just I lost connection.
All I need now is a red Ferrari with a female driving it with big boobs.
I'd be fucked.
No chance.
If it's yellow and a guy, we got him.
Okay, boys.
Let's see what you've got.
What is that? We're in We're in good shape boys.
It's yellow, with a fucking Rolls Royce behind it.
What a sick bastard.
It's a girl driving it.
You ain't getting beat by a girl.
No, I'm driving.
Well, it's yellow.
So, that's I had a mental block about red.
So, I'm feeling good.
Let's hope it's not a female.
Okay, hi.
Oh, my God.
Jesus Christ.
I knew it.
I felt it.
You know, I felt it.
Yellow and a female.
Oh, my God, I swear, if I lose Come on, we should Maybe we should all hug her.
Please.
I'm gonna throw up.
- Hi, I'm Lisa.
- Hello, there.
I'm Scott.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
I'm Fabian, nice to meet you.
- Fabian? Nice to meet you too.
- Yeah.
- So, you guys had fun preparing? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of fun.
- What'd you do, detail it, wax it? - I think your job is gonna be - Was a lot more fun than what mine was.
- Yeah, yeah, I know.
I didn't have to do much.
I know you didn't have to do much, you took it to the car wash.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Being a woman in racing, I've been prepped a little mentally, and had situations where I, kind of, get that shocked look.
So, I wasn't completely surprised.
But it was fun seeing the lineup of guys all together, and they all had the same look.
- Does it look souped up to you? - No.
- It's stock? - I think so.
Holy shit! That looks like a 10,000-dollar steering wheel.
It is set on race.
She's Mario Andretti's daughter? - No way, really? - No, that's what I feel.
She's somebody serious.
Failure is not part of my life.
I will not accept it, and if anything does fail, I will strive to turn that around into a success.
All right, that was the last test.
Before we get into the drivers' meeting, I want to unfortunately mention that one of our competitors was unable to run today.
Sometimes you do everything right, you do everything you can, and you can't run.
The reality of this was that we had big issues and big problems.
And that was with the ECU, the computer for the vehicle was just fried.
Therefore, it's not even powering anything in the vehicle anymore.
It's like cutting your head off.
Man, if I could just prove to everybody and my brother that I could beat a Ferrari, it'd be so beautiful.
They're not gonna intimidate me.
They're not gonna be in my head at all.
I'm only worried about me and this car, and that's where I'm gonna be racing.
I'm gonna be racing myself and that's how you win.
This is completely out of my realm.
I've never done drag racing, so, I'm really looking forward to this experience.
We represent budget.
We represent anybody can do it.
You know, you don't have to have a lot of money to do it.
We put this together with no money.
Her tires cost more than a whole car.
I've got a little bit of a tentative reaction with that Impala, because it was like, "Oh my, there's some stuff going on there.
" So, there's some competition over there for sure.
I don't know about the Cutlass.
We're just gonna have to wait and see, but I know he's ready to go and ready to rock, and he wants to win too.
So, he's gonna give it his best.
We're gonna race her and the car.
And that's the thing.
If we have a Ferrari with an okay driver, we're gonna slaughter it.
But if we got a Ferrari with a good driver, it's gonna be a race.
I'm gonna go for her throat just like she's any other man.
I'm not gonna think male or female.
I'm gonna go after her.
I'm not scared of this Ferrari.
This Impala's gonna beat its ass.
Failure's not an option.
Yay, I got a first place.
Beautiful.
- Hey, baby.
- My God.
I love you, guys.
I'm shocked and sad I didn't win the race.
I did it for my brother Tony, but I know he's smiling at me right now.
Hey, yeah, I was just glad to see them, like, two cars in the background, yes.
I would have been disqualified.
I left so early, and the car went - And it left.
- You got third.
- You got third.
I got last.
- You're NA.
Yeah, well, it was girl power all the way.
- I'm DNF.
Did not finish.
- DNFs.
And I'm still upset, because I know that if my car was working and running the way it was supposed to be running, I have no doubt that I would've beat everybody on that, including the supercar.
- How fast is this son of a gun, huh? - Fucking bad-ass.
This bad-ass car? Fast car, huh? After the quarter-mile, she probably hit 160, 170.
Do you know how fast she was going? I had a great time.
It was a blast.
Those guys on each side of me, and not knowing what was going to happen.
And I felt on the right, he had a good launch, then the Ferrari just did its magic and took off.
It was a fun experience, drag racing.
Never done it.
When I seen her passing me, I kind of felt my brother laugh at me for a second, I think, I don't know.
Or it was me laughing at myself but I felt something.
Yeah.
How much she beat me by? Ten, 12 car lengths, she probably did.
I don't know, I let go of the gas when I saw her ass so far ahead.
I'm like, "Holy shit.
" She is just tough as any man out here.
You know, I really respect her.
For me and the Brotherhood, we're mostly wanting to tell Willie a story.
We beat ourselves up to get here and we still never quit.
And that's the bottom line.
It feels great winning the race, not just for my car and my driving skills, but for all the women out there.
It shows we can be as good as any man in a race car.