Fastest Car (2018) s02e02 Episode Script
We Created a Monster
1 [woman.]
I call this Mustang the Virus because it makes people sick.
[man 1.]
Would I like to have a Ferrari? Sure.
But for one reason only.
To sell it and buy a better Honda.
[man 2.]
This is a $400,000 supercar.
If I lose to a small pickup truck, you know, it'd be terrible.
[man 3.]
My wife, she's sayin' right now, "Don't get beat by some shitbox Honda, don't let a Ford hand you your ass, and don't have a McLaren beat you.
" [woman.]
We created a monster, but when the light drops it's on me.
[car engines revving.]
[birdsong.]
Did you know when you were gonna have a kid that you'd put them into drag racing or get 'em into drag racing? I wanted to do that.
I always knew you could do it, you know? This is the the '58 Chevy that you drove when you was 13 years old.
About 600 horsepower, 18-inch wide tires.
I'd pick you up from sixth grade in that truck.
"Gas it, Daddy.
Gas it.
" - "Do it again, do it again.
" - [woman.]
"Do it again!" - [man.]
"Do it again!" - [woman laughs.]
My name's Tiana Weber.
This is a 2001 Mustang GT.
I swapped it with an LS9 Chevy engine.
People told me to go to hell.
Uh [chuckles.]
That I was just, like, a disgrace to the car world, you know, putting in this motor in this cheap Mustang.
I call this Mustang the Virus because it makes people sick.
[Tiana.]
When I beat somebody that's known for being fast, you know, they're shocked.
You'll literally hear people say, "Holy crap, that's a girl.
" You know, we're different on the outside than we are on the inside.
I may look, you know, a little dainty little girl, but on the inside, you pop that hood it's a crazy little short beast.
[laughs.]
[Tiana.]
I've always been one of the more intimidating racers.
I have more of a hard shell, a little bit of a colder heart.
You know, when you're racing all males, you know, you want to beat everybody.
You want to be the best.
2004 is when we started racing at Irwindale.
I've only lost three times.
[Tiana.]
My dad loved cars.
He was a diesel mechanic.
Every time he had time off, he'd be working on cars in the garage.
I'd be there with him.
I loved it.
I would sit and watch while he painted or worked on cars.
I'd be in the garage every day.
I mean, my dad put me in the car probably when I was like five.
[laughs.]
[man.]
I always told her, You can do it, Tiana.
" And I tried driving that into her.
You know? "Get down there and change that oil.
Loosen up that plug.
Here's a hammer.
Hit it.
" She's never let me down.
[Tiana.]
The striving to not fail, you know, comes from my dad.
[Tiana.]
On this race, that supercar does have the advantage.
But I'm the best racer.
I literally just have to give it all that I have.
My name is Chad Reynolds, and I drive a 1966 Bel Air station wagon.
In our family, cars are family, right? They have personality, they have names.
The car's name is Ethyl.
E-T-H-Y-L.
[Chad.]
You know, it's a full size Chevy.
It was all stock.
My wife, Daphne, she wanted a car she could drive every day and race.
We built it up and it became her daily driver.
It makes about four times the horsepower it made stock.
[laughs.]
If the guy that we end up goin' up against is the gold chain-wearing douchebag that looks down on this wagon, I assure you I will make sure that he fuckin' questions whether that was a good idea or not.
My entire life, cars have always been the thing.
My dad was the race car guy.
As I grew up and, like, read, you know, Hot Rod magazine, I started to figure out how to build stuff.
That's why I met Daphne.
I bought an engine from her dad.
Two weeks later, three weeks later, we were on our first date.
I always joked with her and said I had to spend $4,000 just to take her out on the first date, and that didn't include drinks.
It was worth every penny.
[laughs.]
[Chad.]
She was a single mom.
Cole was only four, Peyton was seven.
I don't think either one of us had a clue as to what we were in for.
I don't think either one of us questioned how we felt.
We were in.
Daphne grew up as, you know, a racer's daughter.
She grew up at the racetrack.
It wasn't if I was gonna have to put her in a race car, it was when.
The next thing you know, I have companies that are asking me if they can sponsor Daphne for things.
She's that All-American mom.
It just grew from there.
It was awesome because she got to be a pro at that point.
And then I'm at a race event and get a phone call, and she's coughed up a blood clot.
Um I thought it was bad when I had to call her dad and tell him that she had cancer.
But that was nowhere near as bad as it would get.
I mean, nowhere near.
She started chemo and, you know, the odds weren't in our favor.
The first day that she started, we met with the oncologist and talked about the chemo schedule.
She said, "Okay, well, Rocky Mountain Race Week is on this date.
I'm leaving and going on this race, and I don't give a shit what you say.
" And they laughed.
And she went, "It's not funny.
" She had lost so much weight, she was so weak.
They didn't think she could make it.
You know, we trudged along, and she got better and better.
And I went, "Well, fuck, I better make the car faster.
" Daphne wanted the car to run in the 11s, It hadn't run in the 11s yet, right? 12.
0s, but no 11.
When we got to Rocky Mountain Race Week in 2017 all the people at the racetrack applauding her when she pulled up.
[Chad.]
And she leaves the starting line and it's haulin' ass down there.
You're waitin' for the scoreboard to pop up.
It pops up Eleven fifty-fuckin'-three right there! Holy shit! 11:53.
You know, almost 117 miles an hour.
And I'm jumpin' up and down.
I mean, everybody's losin' their minds.
Woo! Woo! And she's driving down the return road, - honkin' the horn.
- [horn beeping.]
- [man.]
It must be okay.
- [Chad.]
Yeah.
[screams.]
Woo! Woo-hoo-hoo! [laughing.]
[squealing and laughing.]
[Chad.]
I was so proud of her, I was so happy.
- [laughing.]
- Holy cow! - Woo! - [man.]
A 53! All she wanted to do was race her car.
[sniffles.]
- [man.]
No, 63! - No! Oh, my God! She was good for a month and a half.
She died a year and a half ago on her 50th birthday.
You know, she went out the way she wanted, and, uh [sniffles.]
I miss her all the time, but we never would have had the year we had, though.
[sniffles.]
I mean, we just never would have, right? You don't take the time, right? People don't make living life the priority.
There was something in the back of my head that's like, "Daphne would think this race was cool.
She'd wanna do it.
" And I wish it was her drivin' it.
She was ultra-competitive.
She's probably in my head, yelling at me not to screw it up.
[Chad.]
It sure would be cool to, you know, kick a supercar's ass and everybody else's, for Daphne.
What do you think about doing the quarter-mileas opposed to the eighth? Man, as far as I'm concerned, that's just that much more area to burn.
I know it's possible that anything can happen when you're racing - but we just put a lot of money into it.
- I'm gonna tell you my biggest concern.
Oh, the money thing.
[woman.]
So, if something was to go wrong, like, are we talkin' about sitting down, going back to the drawing board and spending a bunch of money? While we're on this subject, we might as well put it out there.
This is the last time we're doing this, you know? We've said that, like, four times over already.
[laughs.]
[man.]
My friends all call the car cursed.
I've just had such bad experiences with it, a lot of bad luck.
So much money put into it That being said, that car's not going anywhere.
It's way too sentimental.
I love my car.
I grew up in a part of San Diego called Encanto.
I was raised my mom and my grandmother.
My dad was never really around.
He was in and out of prison.
When I was in high school, you would hear these stories about illegal street races.
It was like my calling, man.
Like, it just really, really drew me in.
And I was like, "Let's do it again!" You know? And I've pretty much been livin' my life like that ever since, you know? "Let's do it again.
" [John.]
I remember, I'd just barely turned 21 or so.
I started hanging out with, you know, people of bad character.
But these guys that I met, they were into stealing cars, and I remember, I I went with them one night, and and I ended up getting busted, you know? [radio chatter.]
[John.]
Being away from my family, being away from my kid, that was one of the things that killed me the most.
And it's something that I look back on now with great shame and great regret, because how do you explain to a four-year-old why their dad is gone? It really broke my heart.
But, I mean, you play, you pay, you know? You know, and after going to prison for that, the car, it was a positive influence, you know? I feel like, without the car, I don't know where else I would have went.
Michelle has been supportive in everything I've ever done.
Everything.
[John.]
She's always stuck by me and always known that I could be better.
Maybe it has something to do with the way I was raised.
You always support your husband, and all the rebuilding, the parts, it does get very costly, but John's my husband and I love him.
And seeing him happy, racing, having the car of his dreams, and being the father he always wanted to be, it makes me happy and fills my heart with a lot of joy, so [John.]
As people know, this isn't a cheap hobby.
You know, you see movies of people bringin' home flowers and diamond rings, and we're over here buyin' pistons and rods, you know? [laughs.]
I I just wanna try and be that guy for my wife.
You know, she deserves that.
That's kind of why this race means so much to me.
This could be my very last one.
[man.]
In my life, I've always wanted to, you know, excel and be more mature, and cigar to me was, uh, sophistication, a sign of success.
And I do remember Arnold was on the cover of Aficionado magazine.
You know, he's always smoking a big fat cigar.
And to me it was, like, macho, and you know, it was cool, you know? [laughs.]
I got into real estate because I saw a guy driving a Porsche convertible 30 years ago.
I asked him, "What do you do for a living?" He goes, "Loans and real estate.
" So that's what I went after.
[laughs.]
Now I own properties in six different states, about, you know, $250 million in assets.
[Manny.]
My success has afforded me many things in life.
Most importantly, I have some of the rarest supercars in the world.
I look at them as art on wheels.
My entire collection, right now as it stands, is around $20 million.
Here we have a Bugatti.
This is the only one made for USA.
Fully exposed carbon fiber, two-tone interior.
So, annual service for this Bugatti is $25,000 a year.
This, uh, McLaren 650S cost me $362,000.
They made only 50 in the world.
Not the most expensive, but the most important, because this is the one that's gonna win me the race.
[Manny.]
It really makes you feel like you're a race car driver.
It's got millions of dollars in technology.
It's got a lot of carbon fiber.
It's got launch control and, uh, 641 horsepower, baby.
[Manny.]
Well, losing this race would really bum me out, because this is a $400,000 supercar.
If, uh, I lose it to a small pickup truck, it'd be a sad day.
- [Tiana.]
It's a 2016 McLaren 650S.
- [man.]
Ooh.
- That looks pretty baller.
- [man 2.]
It is a nice car.
10:30, rear-wheel drive, on a probably a perfect weather day.
Nitrous is a must.
Let's put it on there, just to be - just to be safe, right? - Yep.
Equip with this race for nitrous for sure.
- Not a lot, though.
But something.
- Yeah, just extra insurance.
- Seven-speed transmission, it says.
- Yeah, it's got it's got more gear.
Automatic.
You're not gonna out-shift that.
So, we just gotta make sure you hit every gear and don't miss one.
We'll see how you do at the track shiftin' it, and She's gotta do her job now, - jockey it and drive it.
- Damn.
Like that.
- [Ryan.]
It's all on you now.
- That'll be an automatic one day.
- [Tiana.]
What? - I'm I'm callin' it.
- That's if you have any say in it.
- Aah You have your own car to play with.
People have told me, "Put automatic in your car.
Why do a manual transmission? You're gonna go so much faster in an auto.
" But it's about the challenge.
It's important for me to be in control of the car.
That's why I built it like this.
With a manual trans car, you have to feather the clutch, and you have to not gas it completely.
You know, you have to make sure it's at the perfect RPM for launching.
Brandon, how do you think I'll launch this car? Think I'm gonna baby it, like maybe how I used to be back in high school? I think it's gonna scare you.
- You think it's gonna scare me? - Yeah.
Man, you don't know me like I thought you did.
[laughter.]
[Tiana.]
It is a lot of pressure.
I could tell my husband and Ryan are super stressed out.
I do worry about letting them down.
I mean, I wanna win.
I wanna show them, you know "Look what we've done, look at what we created.
" We put an LS9 motor in a 2001 Mustang.
We created a monster.
And it's only gonna get faster and faster.
[Tiana.]
We haven't been able to race this new car.
We need to go to the track.
[John.]
McLaren 650S.
[laughter.]
- That's the exact car that I asked you - It has to - "What do you not wanna race?" - I don't wanna race that car.
- 'Cause that car's gonna be really fast.
- Yeah, definitely.
Ten-second quarter mile We're gonna need everything we got.
[Joey.]
Oh, definitely.
[John.]
My car is running low 11 second quarter miles.
We're gonna go ahead and add some carbon fiber, try and get our car as light as possible, so we can get into the ten-second range as well.
Be extra careful when you bring out that carbon fiber, dude.
I've reached my max limit on spendability here.
[John.]
Yeah, man, these fenders, you know, steel, they're not too light.
Carbon fiber will actually be a lot lighter.
And you definitely want to install that? - Yeah.
- It's an expensive front end.
You can't just risk it.
[John.]
Spending so much money on car parts and, uh, tunes and modifications, you know My wife has just always been there.
She She never complains, never gives me any grief about it.
At the end of the day, for Michelle's sake, I don't want it to be for nothing.
So that's why we have to win this race.
Man, it's looking nice.
Dude, I'm, like, blown away right now.
The horsepower to weight ratio is gonna be the biggest factor that we can have on this car.
I mean, we're gonna be underestimated, by far.
This guy's gonna look at us and be like, "Pah.
" You know, "This is a a freaking economy car, a little Honda, you know, a four-banger" - Let's see what this thing can do.
- Yeah! [Alecs.]
Let's see if John can drive.
[laughter.]
[engine revving.]
[John.]
Building this car, I feel like I have so much more to prove than some supercar.
I feel like they're gonna get out of their car and feel, like, entitled to this win.
They have this car for a reason.
Well, so do I.
I have my car for a reason, and I intend to prove why.
- [man.]
So what are we running? - Ha, ha! - A McLaren 650S.
- [gasps.]
- [Chad.]
641 horse, at 7,200 RPM.
- [man.]
Right.
It's a pretty - bitchin' lookin' car.
- Yep.
Mid-engine rear-drive - 3253 - It was 350 grand new.
.
We know this thing will run 11:50s.
- We are at least a second off - Supercar time.
- of the supercar time.
- Okay.
We don't just need more power, we need more power, like, with all caps, right? - Yes, all of it.
- That what you're saying? Perfect.
[Richard.]
I'm all in.
I just don't think we can get there with - the amount of nitrous we'd have to add.
- That's what I'm afraid of.
So this thing could give us another three or four hundred horsepower.
[Chad.]
Right.
We've added a supercharger now.
Here, you hold that.
[Chad.]
A supercharger forces a lot more air into the engine, under pressure, a boost, and that makes horsepower.
[Chad.]
Dude Dude.
We start doing testing and see if we're gonna have to change things.
[Richard.]
Testing is gonna be the key.
- Can you finish installing that? - Daphne'd be proud.
Either that or she'd kill us.
Either way.
- We'll take either of those.
- Actually, she'll be mad because she was supposed to run 10:80s in this thing, - with the ProCharger.
- There you go.
[Cole.]
Why don't we put brackets on Mom's urn? That'd be awesome.
She gets to ride along.
- Yeah.
- Yell at us the whole time.
Dude! [gasps.]
- Intimidation factor.
- Yeah.
We put the fuckin' urn on the hood or some shit.
That would freak some people out.
I'm down with that.
- She'd think it was cool.
- Oh, yeah.
[Chad.]
That's a great idea.
We totally have to do that.
No question.
The bad part is, if she's riding in the car with me, she's gonna be yelling at me, "Go, you idiot! They've already left!" [laughter.]
[Manny.]
Driving these cars make me feel like I've achieved my dream.
These cars are my babies, you know, and I don't like to take them on the track, beat them up, you know, God forbid they get some dings and scratches.
But I am very competitive, and a lot of times, uh, people don't see that coming.
All the other built car drivers, they would probably describe me as, uh, a spoiled trust fund baby, which is, uh [chuckles.]
which is very far off.
My parents, you know, sacrificed to get me here when I was 14, and, you know, it wasn't easy.
I was born in 1971 in Tehran, which is the capital of Iran.
It was beautiful.
But when the regime changed in 1979, I was seven or eight years old, the Iran and Iraq War happened, and, completely, it was chaos.
[man yelling.]
[chanting.]
[Manny.]
When you reached the age of 14, the government would take you by force, draft you to the army, and my dad, of course, didn't want me to be one of those kids.
We came to America, and my dad had a friend that owned a gas station and had promised him a job.
We were forced to live in a car for a while, and I'd remember we used to park the car in a parking lot of a supermarket.
My sister was a baby, and I remember sometimes my mom had to wrap her in newspaper because diapers were expensive.
You hit desperation moments in life, you know, rock bottom.
And, you know, it wasn't easy, but, uh, what gave me that spirit to succeed and never give up was the desperation of what my family went through.
And I never want to see those days again.
I'm grateful for everything, even sleeping in a car.
Everything I've done in life, I've tried to succeed and excel in.
I hate losing.
You know, if I lose, having this car, you know, it'd be terrible.
[John.]
Overall, we ended up taking about 100 pounds out of the car.
Last thing we gotta do is test it out and see how much faster we are.
It's just almost like a Transformer, you know, from its original state, you know, from a grocery go-getter to a supercar killer.
You wanna get to the line, uh, preload, get to your launch control, and then let go of the clutch and the e-brake at the same time and the car's gonna take off.
- Got it.
- This way, it'll minimize your chances of breaking stuff.
[John.]
Got it.
By making the car nice and light, we're gonna be moving a lot faster, and I think that's gonna be our biggest advantage over all these other cars out there.
- [engine sputters.]
- [John.]
The fuck was that? [Darden.]
Did he break second gear already? - [sighs.]
Fuck.
- Yeah.
It went in, then it went out.
All right, shut it off.
I'm not mis-shifting.
[John.]
There's nothin' there.
[John.]
Everything was going good till I went for second gear.
Right now, we're not sure if it's a clutch issue or a transmission issue, but whatever it is, we're screwed.
Dollar signs have been going through my head.
The money, the money, the money.
It It It's always an issue with this.
This thing's cursed, man.
It's no joke.
[man on PA.]
series,, block body design Mustang [announcement continues indistinctly.]
[Tiana.]
I haven't been able to, like, bang gears yet, so I don't know if everything was done right.
That's what I'm gonna have to find out right now.
[Brandon.]
We need to just make sure you're able to control it if it gets a little out of hand, in just shiftin' through the gears, 'cause against an automatic, that's that's gonna be difficult.
Raise the clutch up - and let the fucking thing eat, you know? - Okay.
Have some fun with it.
[tires squeal.]
[Tiana.]
It's not an easy car.
You just can't get it and go and it be perfect the first or fifth time, you know? I've gotta get some practice.
[man on PA.]
And in the Mustang [Tiana.]
I dumped the clutch, I just fuckin' let out, and it still bogged.
- [Brandon.]
It didn't like that.
- I came all the way off.
I just let go and it still bogged, so I might, next time, just ride it out a little bit.
[snarls.]
[Tiana.]
That last test run showed that we got tuning issues to work through, computer controlled stuff.
I can do what I can do, but only so far.
It's actually hooking, the car is actually wanting to plant the tire.
We don't have much time, so I've gotta get some more test passes in before we can get ready for this race.
Carried it.
[man.]
What we're talking about here is really a couple of factors.
One is making sure you don't red light.
[Manny.]
Yeah.
And two, and I think even more so importantly, is making sure you're gettin' the power to the ground.
What do you prefer in your cars? Do you ever use the launch control, or do you just do manual? I think you should put it in track mode.
- Yeah.
- And just punch it.
- Let the car do what it's gonna do.
- Ooh, I like that.
It's gonna shift better on its own - Yeah.
- than you're gonna shift in manual.
With your McLaren, this is right off the showroom floor, and and the technology is really to to help take the the need for an experienced driver out.
You know, one thing you can guarantee, Manny, is you're gonna show up to the race and you're gonna show up not broken.
These guys, you know, they're probably gonna be really stressed.
They're really gonna be worried about the supercar, what it is, you know, - how it'll perform, et cetera - Yeah.
And that's intimidating.
[Manny.]
I got the fastest car and the best technology, so the computer will do all the work.
I've just gotta sit there and push that launch control.
[Chad.]
We put a ProCharger supercharger on it, and this thing will support maybe 1,200 horsepower.
The car is very fast, but it's also real easy for the thing to spin the tires, so it's gonna be on me.
[Chad.]
We owe it to Daphne to do everything we can to hand the supercar owner his ass.
Okay.
[John.]
I just dropped another $1,000 on a Twin Disc clutch.
We spent all this money, we've put all this time in, you know? Uh, Michelle's just like, "Spend what you have to, do what you have to.
" You know, "Get ready, you know? I want you to win this race.
" I just don't want it to be for nothing, you know? [Tiana.]
There's so many things runnin' through my head.
"Hope it goes straight, hope it doesn't spin, hope I can shift it.
" You know, so much hard work was put into something that we built.
I don't want to disappoint anybody.
I just need to grow some balls and just shift it a lot faster and a lot harder.
- How you doing? - [John.]
Good.
Nice and early.
I'm T-Mark.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, T-Mark.
- [T-Mark.]
Gettin' your workout in! - [John.]
Oh, yeah! [T-Mark chuckles.]
The issue we're doin' right now, - we've got three spark plugs broke.
- Got it.
So we're gonna be trying to work on getting those extracted.
[T-Mark.]
Okay, okay.
[John.]
Last night, we broke three spark plugs in the head.
I get a phone call from Joey.
His first words were, "Fu We're fucked.
" This is how the plug's supposed to look, right here.
When we popped 'em out, this whole part of the thread's broke off inside the cylinder.
So this is what we're dealin' with.
We've got this ring right here and all these threads inside the head still.
[John.]
If we don't get these spark plugs out in the next hour or so, there's not gonna be a race for us.
Let's get to it.
[John.]
Someone else pullin' in.
[John.]
Girl driver, huh? Never underestimate the girls.
- Mustang.
Mustang.
New body stock.
- [engine revs.]
[Tiana.]
The only way I lose this race is you know, me messing up the situation.
Me mis-shifting, me not launching right me totally fucking up.
[laughs.]
- Tiana, by the way.
- Hi.
John.
- John.
- This is my car.
- Nice.
- We were testing last night, I was like, - "I don't wanna break it" - Tiana.
Oh, dude, who are you telling? I have the worst luck with my car ever.
This thing is just issue after issue, after issue, it's like [Tiana.]
So, the Honda I mean, we got here and it was being worked on, and Good luck.
Good luck, son.
Good luck.
- Okay, fingers crossed.
- Which one is it? I think you're here, no? - [John.]
Got it? - [Joey.]
Yeah.
- [sighs.]
- [Joey.]
Whew! [Darden.]
There you go, you got it.
- [Joey.]
Whew.
- [John.]
Yes! [Darden.]
You got that right here.
[John.]
Fuck, dude.
Man.
- Check it.
- [exhales.]
Those shavings are okay? - What's going on on the camera? - Ah, it's got a little bit of shaving.
[John.]
So now that we've got those three spark plugs out, we've still gotta make sure there's no metal shavings in there.
You don't want any foreign object in the motor.
That's what we're workin' with right now.
[Chad.]
Oh, yeah.
This is gonna be epic.
[indistinct chatter.]
[man.]
You need some power steering fluid? - [Chad.]
Pardon me? - Power steering fluid a little low? If you mean power steering pump removed for ProCharger, then, yes.
[laughs.]
That's exactly what's the problem! - How are you? John.
- Chad, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- Street car.
- How are you, brother? - Brandon.
- How are you? - Hi, Tiana.
- Tiana, Chad.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Is this one yours? - Yeah.
Cool, I like it.
What's it got? Ooh, a stick car! Dude! What's it got in it? Eh, a little Chevy motor.
- [Chad.]
Oh, you went LS? - Yeah.
- What trans is it? - Fifty-fifty-six.
Ooh! You're good.
[Tiana.]
I wanna hold back.
I don't wanna be the one that stands out.
I'm just downplaying the car a little bit.
How long have you had this combo together? - A week.
- Yeah? [laughter.]
[Chad.]
The Mustang is bitchin'.
And the chick drivin' it with a stick is just ultra-cool.
That car is well-sorted on the drag strip.
So we'll see how it does out here.
So we have a McLaren coming, we have a Honda, and we have an LS, and then we have the dinosaur, an actual small-block Chevrolet.
Ta-da! But this was my wife's daily driver car every single day.
We put 50,000 miles on this car in the last six years.
Stereo, air conditioning Literally, daily driver car.
[Chad.]
I'm hopin' we can do Daphne proud enough.
I will do whatever I have to do to win.
I mean, short of crashin' somebody, but don't tell the McLaren guy that.
Yeah, I'm anxious to see what other cars are out there, so Hopefully no Camaros.
Here we go.
A Mustang? [Manny.]
That's not good.
Check this thing out.
He's over there already, peeping it out.
[door alarm chimes.]
- How are you doing, guys? Manny.
- How you doin'? - Nice to meet you.
- And you.
- Chad, nice meeting you.
- Nice meeting you, Chad.
John, nice to meet you.
- You got a beautiful car.
- Thank you.
- This is what we're dealing with, huh? - Hi.
Tiana.
Nice to meet you, Tiana.
Oh.
Wow.
- It's badass.
- Yeah.
[Chad.]
We're the underdogs.
Everybody here is the underdog compared to that thing.
I mean, if this guy has a half a clue as to what he's doin', then that thing's gonna leave like a slingshot, and it makes real power.
[Tiana.]
The car that I'm most concerned about is the supercar, the McLaren.
I mean, that thing's got so much technology in it.
You could buy a few houses with that thing.
It's just gonna be floor it and go.
- [laughter.]
- Yeah.
Oh, yeah! [Tiana.]
His launch control is really tricky and he has to time it right, and I hope that fucks him up on the top end.
I just hope, like Fuck up that and we'll be good.
[chuckles.]
[Manny.]
Toughest challenge right here.
The Mustang is the one I'm worried about.
That's about 800-plus horsepower.
It's got nitrous, but the trick is, it's manual transmission.
She has to hit it just at the right time, shifting.
So, with my technology, and launch control and traction control, I think I've got a good, uh, advantage.
[John.]
These shavings are all cleared out.
Right now, we need to get the spark plugs in and get this car to the fuckin' starting line.
Hold on.
Hold on, hold on.
- Is it good? - All right Uh, John, you guys gonna be able to get over there? - [both.]
Yeah.
- Okay, and start it up? - Jumpin' 'em in right now.
- Okay, we just wanted to make sure that your car was able to move.
- Yeah, I'll be able to drive over.
- Okay, so, when you're ready, - give me a thumbs up and we'll go.
- Okay.
Right, Joey? - Huh? - I'll be able to drive it over, huh? Yeah.
All right, drivers and crews, may I have your attention over here, please? Drivers and crews, please.
So, uh, what we're gonna do next is we are going to leave the pit area.
So get in your cars, turn 'em on, and we'll guide you over to your, uh, lane assignments.
[Chad.]
Yeah.
[Joey.]
Yeah, dude, we're cuttin' it super close.
Everybody's already on the line.
Fucking "Last Minute John," they'll call me.
[engine stuttering.]
[engine revs.]
[engine whines.]
[Darden.]
Hey, John, shift through the gears, even if it looks dumb.
[engine revving.]
- [John.]
Good.
- [man.]
You ready? Good job.
- Woo! - [John.]
Thank you.
[cheering and laughter.]
- You're done.
- [Chad.]
He made it! - Well played, sir.
Well played.
- [chuckling.]
That's how you make an entrance, right there.
- Yeah? - Right? I appreciate you persevering, - thank you for that.
- Appreciate it.
[T-Mark.]
Okay, the way the lights will go is it will be solid red and solid green.
You wanna go on green.
One false start equals a disqualification.
[Chad.]
My wife is sayin' right now, "Don't get beat by some shitbox Honda, don't let a fuckin' Ford hand you your ass.
and sure as fuck don't have a McLaren beat you.
" [John.]
Fighter goes into the ring, he don't feel good that day, there ain't no rescheduling.
You know, I got my wife and my kid out here watching.
We're just gonna try and send it.
[John.]
I'm ready to race, man.
[Tiana.]
I built this car from the bottom up with my husband, my friends, my team But when the light drops, it's on me.
[Manny.]
I got the fastest car and the best technology.
I've just gotta sit there and push that launch control.
[engines revving.]
[man on radio.]
Tiana! Tiana won.
Woo! Fuck.
Woo! Acceleratin', baby! Woo! Woo! You guys all fucking grenaded tires, parts fell off the Honda, - I thought it came off your car.
- [Tiana.]
What? - No shit! - [Chad.]
Haulin' ass.
- Oh, he passed me at the finish line.
- Did he? Oh, yeah, I was third.
Oh, man.
[John.]
I got no nitrous goin' through the line, no nitrous hittin' the motor.
We got nothin'.
- Great job.
- Where were you? I wasn't looking straight.
I don't know where anybody was! - My launch control failed.
- [Brandon groans.]
- It failed.
- Yeah.
You launched out on the Mustang.
- [laughing.]
- You did good, dude.
.
Dude, that was all motor, dude.
That was all motor.
Are you kidding me? You know what that'll look like to all your friends? Like, all motor.
That was not nitrous, that's not turbo.
That's all motor.
- Aah, dude! - That was awesome.
- Had fun, though.
- At least I came second.
Yeah, that's right.
[laughing.]
Now we need a cigar to celebrate.
- [Chad.]
He got me at the top.
- [T-Mark.]
Great run.
All right.
Very nice.
All right, in position four we have John.
- Nicely done.
- [man.]
Yeah! Honda! Is that my my trophy? - Yes.
- [laughter.]
[Chad.]
Cheat! You blew his fender off.
- Yeah! - Yeah! - She did it.
- I'll take it.
- Yes, there we go.
All right.
- They were good.
[John.]
Once I hit that nitrous button, absolutely nothing happened.
My car literally felt like I let off the gas, and it was full throttle, but it just completely started to bog out.
[makes sputtering sound.]
This whole car has been It's a money pit, is what it is.
And, you know, sometimes it puts strain on a marriage.
I'm just glad my wife has always been there through thick and thin for me, and has my back no matter what.
The motor's still good and it's still goin' strong.
- [man.]
Yeah, no false start either.
- It's still all a win-win.
And in position three - we have Chad.
- [man.]
Yay, Chad! [T-Mark.]
Very nicely done.
[Chad.]
I think it was really a closer race than I think anybody expected.
I mean, everybody has their struggles, but, you know, this was to honor Daphne, and bein' able to share it with the kids and give them this experience, it's what it's about.
And in position two we have Manny.
[cheering and applause.]
[laughter.]
[Manny.]
I feel terrible! I used launch control, my launch control sequence failed, and it cost me the race.
This race really changed my mindset, of really being more focused, and don't rely on technology, take control of the car.
And, uh Oh, I have a total appreciation for shitboxes.
[laughs.]
I I saw firsthand, uh, how much effort and detail these owners put into their cars, and, uh, it was a beautiful, uh, scene to see.
And our champion for today who will go on to the championship round - Damn! - And race against five other champions - We got some work to do.
- is Tiana.
[cheering.]
[Tiana.]
We got some work to do, guys! [T-Mark chuckles.]
It was all about, you know, throttle response, and just hopes and dreams.
And, you know, thanks to my fucking awesome team for getting me here.
[laughs.]
I couldn't have done it without them.
And it was an honor racing all of you.
And, you know, I heard that your wife is with you on your car, and that is so fucking awesome.
[voice breaking.]
Um, I wished you were out front, to be honest.
Like, that was that was pretty fucking cool.
[Tiana.]
I didn't see anybody.
I had my eyes just to those checkered flags.
I probably gained a bit of confidence in myself.
You know, I raced against a very expensive supercar.
My husband, he puts his heart and soul into cars and into our shop.
It's our whole life.
[Tiana.]
This is what we live for.
Like, this is what we do.
I'll do it till the day I die, or till the day I can't drive anymore.
It was an honor.
It was so much fun, guys.
[laughs.]
[T-Mark.]
Very nice.
Let's give 'em a round of applause.
Very nice.
[cheering and applause.]
[Tiana exclaims.]
I call this Mustang the Virus because it makes people sick.
[man 1.]
Would I like to have a Ferrari? Sure.
But for one reason only.
To sell it and buy a better Honda.
[man 2.]
This is a $400,000 supercar.
If I lose to a small pickup truck, you know, it'd be terrible.
[man 3.]
My wife, she's sayin' right now, "Don't get beat by some shitbox Honda, don't let a Ford hand you your ass, and don't have a McLaren beat you.
" [woman.]
We created a monster, but when the light drops it's on me.
[car engines revving.]
[birdsong.]
Did you know when you were gonna have a kid that you'd put them into drag racing or get 'em into drag racing? I wanted to do that.
I always knew you could do it, you know? This is the the '58 Chevy that you drove when you was 13 years old.
About 600 horsepower, 18-inch wide tires.
I'd pick you up from sixth grade in that truck.
"Gas it, Daddy.
Gas it.
" - "Do it again, do it again.
" - [woman.]
"Do it again!" - [man.]
"Do it again!" - [woman laughs.]
My name's Tiana Weber.
This is a 2001 Mustang GT.
I swapped it with an LS9 Chevy engine.
People told me to go to hell.
Uh [chuckles.]
That I was just, like, a disgrace to the car world, you know, putting in this motor in this cheap Mustang.
I call this Mustang the Virus because it makes people sick.
[Tiana.]
When I beat somebody that's known for being fast, you know, they're shocked.
You'll literally hear people say, "Holy crap, that's a girl.
" You know, we're different on the outside than we are on the inside.
I may look, you know, a little dainty little girl, but on the inside, you pop that hood it's a crazy little short beast.
[laughs.]
[Tiana.]
I've always been one of the more intimidating racers.
I have more of a hard shell, a little bit of a colder heart.
You know, when you're racing all males, you know, you want to beat everybody.
You want to be the best.
2004 is when we started racing at Irwindale.
I've only lost three times.
[Tiana.]
My dad loved cars.
He was a diesel mechanic.
Every time he had time off, he'd be working on cars in the garage.
I'd be there with him.
I loved it.
I would sit and watch while he painted or worked on cars.
I'd be in the garage every day.
I mean, my dad put me in the car probably when I was like five.
[laughs.]
[man.]
I always told her, You can do it, Tiana.
" And I tried driving that into her.
You know? "Get down there and change that oil.
Loosen up that plug.
Here's a hammer.
Hit it.
" She's never let me down.
[Tiana.]
The striving to not fail, you know, comes from my dad.
[Tiana.]
On this race, that supercar does have the advantage.
But I'm the best racer.
I literally just have to give it all that I have.
My name is Chad Reynolds, and I drive a 1966 Bel Air station wagon.
In our family, cars are family, right? They have personality, they have names.
The car's name is Ethyl.
E-T-H-Y-L.
[Chad.]
You know, it's a full size Chevy.
It was all stock.
My wife, Daphne, she wanted a car she could drive every day and race.
We built it up and it became her daily driver.
It makes about four times the horsepower it made stock.
[laughs.]
If the guy that we end up goin' up against is the gold chain-wearing douchebag that looks down on this wagon, I assure you I will make sure that he fuckin' questions whether that was a good idea or not.
My entire life, cars have always been the thing.
My dad was the race car guy.
As I grew up and, like, read, you know, Hot Rod magazine, I started to figure out how to build stuff.
That's why I met Daphne.
I bought an engine from her dad.
Two weeks later, three weeks later, we were on our first date.
I always joked with her and said I had to spend $4,000 just to take her out on the first date, and that didn't include drinks.
It was worth every penny.
[laughs.]
[Chad.]
She was a single mom.
Cole was only four, Peyton was seven.
I don't think either one of us had a clue as to what we were in for.
I don't think either one of us questioned how we felt.
We were in.
Daphne grew up as, you know, a racer's daughter.
She grew up at the racetrack.
It wasn't if I was gonna have to put her in a race car, it was when.
The next thing you know, I have companies that are asking me if they can sponsor Daphne for things.
She's that All-American mom.
It just grew from there.
It was awesome because she got to be a pro at that point.
And then I'm at a race event and get a phone call, and she's coughed up a blood clot.
Um I thought it was bad when I had to call her dad and tell him that she had cancer.
But that was nowhere near as bad as it would get.
I mean, nowhere near.
She started chemo and, you know, the odds weren't in our favor.
The first day that she started, we met with the oncologist and talked about the chemo schedule.
She said, "Okay, well, Rocky Mountain Race Week is on this date.
I'm leaving and going on this race, and I don't give a shit what you say.
" And they laughed.
And she went, "It's not funny.
" She had lost so much weight, she was so weak.
They didn't think she could make it.
You know, we trudged along, and she got better and better.
And I went, "Well, fuck, I better make the car faster.
" Daphne wanted the car to run in the 11s, It hadn't run in the 11s yet, right? 12.
0s, but no 11.
When we got to Rocky Mountain Race Week in 2017 all the people at the racetrack applauding her when she pulled up.
[Chad.]
And she leaves the starting line and it's haulin' ass down there.
You're waitin' for the scoreboard to pop up.
It pops up Eleven fifty-fuckin'-three right there! Holy shit! 11:53.
You know, almost 117 miles an hour.
And I'm jumpin' up and down.
I mean, everybody's losin' their minds.
Woo! Woo! And she's driving down the return road, - honkin' the horn.
- [horn beeping.]
- [man.]
It must be okay.
- [Chad.]
Yeah.
[screams.]
Woo! Woo-hoo-hoo! [laughing.]
[squealing and laughing.]
[Chad.]
I was so proud of her, I was so happy.
- [laughing.]
- Holy cow! - Woo! - [man.]
A 53! All she wanted to do was race her car.
[sniffles.]
- [man.]
No, 63! - No! Oh, my God! She was good for a month and a half.
She died a year and a half ago on her 50th birthday.
You know, she went out the way she wanted, and, uh [sniffles.]
I miss her all the time, but we never would have had the year we had, though.
[sniffles.]
I mean, we just never would have, right? You don't take the time, right? People don't make living life the priority.
There was something in the back of my head that's like, "Daphne would think this race was cool.
She'd wanna do it.
" And I wish it was her drivin' it.
She was ultra-competitive.
She's probably in my head, yelling at me not to screw it up.
[Chad.]
It sure would be cool to, you know, kick a supercar's ass and everybody else's, for Daphne.
What do you think about doing the quarter-mileas opposed to the eighth? Man, as far as I'm concerned, that's just that much more area to burn.
I know it's possible that anything can happen when you're racing - but we just put a lot of money into it.
- I'm gonna tell you my biggest concern.
Oh, the money thing.
[woman.]
So, if something was to go wrong, like, are we talkin' about sitting down, going back to the drawing board and spending a bunch of money? While we're on this subject, we might as well put it out there.
This is the last time we're doing this, you know? We've said that, like, four times over already.
[laughs.]
[man.]
My friends all call the car cursed.
I've just had such bad experiences with it, a lot of bad luck.
So much money put into it That being said, that car's not going anywhere.
It's way too sentimental.
I love my car.
I grew up in a part of San Diego called Encanto.
I was raised my mom and my grandmother.
My dad was never really around.
He was in and out of prison.
When I was in high school, you would hear these stories about illegal street races.
It was like my calling, man.
Like, it just really, really drew me in.
And I was like, "Let's do it again!" You know? And I've pretty much been livin' my life like that ever since, you know? "Let's do it again.
" [John.]
I remember, I'd just barely turned 21 or so.
I started hanging out with, you know, people of bad character.
But these guys that I met, they were into stealing cars, and I remember, I I went with them one night, and and I ended up getting busted, you know? [radio chatter.]
[John.]
Being away from my family, being away from my kid, that was one of the things that killed me the most.
And it's something that I look back on now with great shame and great regret, because how do you explain to a four-year-old why their dad is gone? It really broke my heart.
But, I mean, you play, you pay, you know? You know, and after going to prison for that, the car, it was a positive influence, you know? I feel like, without the car, I don't know where else I would have went.
Michelle has been supportive in everything I've ever done.
Everything.
[John.]
She's always stuck by me and always known that I could be better.
Maybe it has something to do with the way I was raised.
You always support your husband, and all the rebuilding, the parts, it does get very costly, but John's my husband and I love him.
And seeing him happy, racing, having the car of his dreams, and being the father he always wanted to be, it makes me happy and fills my heart with a lot of joy, so [John.]
As people know, this isn't a cheap hobby.
You know, you see movies of people bringin' home flowers and diamond rings, and we're over here buyin' pistons and rods, you know? [laughs.]
I I just wanna try and be that guy for my wife.
You know, she deserves that.
That's kind of why this race means so much to me.
This could be my very last one.
[man.]
In my life, I've always wanted to, you know, excel and be more mature, and cigar to me was, uh, sophistication, a sign of success.
And I do remember Arnold was on the cover of Aficionado magazine.
You know, he's always smoking a big fat cigar.
And to me it was, like, macho, and you know, it was cool, you know? [laughs.]
I got into real estate because I saw a guy driving a Porsche convertible 30 years ago.
I asked him, "What do you do for a living?" He goes, "Loans and real estate.
" So that's what I went after.
[laughs.]
Now I own properties in six different states, about, you know, $250 million in assets.
[Manny.]
My success has afforded me many things in life.
Most importantly, I have some of the rarest supercars in the world.
I look at them as art on wheels.
My entire collection, right now as it stands, is around $20 million.
Here we have a Bugatti.
This is the only one made for USA.
Fully exposed carbon fiber, two-tone interior.
So, annual service for this Bugatti is $25,000 a year.
This, uh, McLaren 650S cost me $362,000.
They made only 50 in the world.
Not the most expensive, but the most important, because this is the one that's gonna win me the race.
[Manny.]
It really makes you feel like you're a race car driver.
It's got millions of dollars in technology.
It's got a lot of carbon fiber.
It's got launch control and, uh, 641 horsepower, baby.
[Manny.]
Well, losing this race would really bum me out, because this is a $400,000 supercar.
If, uh, I lose it to a small pickup truck, it'd be a sad day.
- [Tiana.]
It's a 2016 McLaren 650S.
- [man.]
Ooh.
- That looks pretty baller.
- [man 2.]
It is a nice car.
10:30, rear-wheel drive, on a probably a perfect weather day.
Nitrous is a must.
Let's put it on there, just to be - just to be safe, right? - Yep.
Equip with this race for nitrous for sure.
- Not a lot, though.
But something.
- Yeah, just extra insurance.
- Seven-speed transmission, it says.
- Yeah, it's got it's got more gear.
Automatic.
You're not gonna out-shift that.
So, we just gotta make sure you hit every gear and don't miss one.
We'll see how you do at the track shiftin' it, and She's gotta do her job now, - jockey it and drive it.
- Damn.
Like that.
- [Ryan.]
It's all on you now.
- That'll be an automatic one day.
- [Tiana.]
What? - I'm I'm callin' it.
- That's if you have any say in it.
- Aah You have your own car to play with.
People have told me, "Put automatic in your car.
Why do a manual transmission? You're gonna go so much faster in an auto.
" But it's about the challenge.
It's important for me to be in control of the car.
That's why I built it like this.
With a manual trans car, you have to feather the clutch, and you have to not gas it completely.
You know, you have to make sure it's at the perfect RPM for launching.
Brandon, how do you think I'll launch this car? Think I'm gonna baby it, like maybe how I used to be back in high school? I think it's gonna scare you.
- You think it's gonna scare me? - Yeah.
Man, you don't know me like I thought you did.
[laughter.]
[Tiana.]
It is a lot of pressure.
I could tell my husband and Ryan are super stressed out.
I do worry about letting them down.
I mean, I wanna win.
I wanna show them, you know "Look what we've done, look at what we created.
" We put an LS9 motor in a 2001 Mustang.
We created a monster.
And it's only gonna get faster and faster.
[Tiana.]
We haven't been able to race this new car.
We need to go to the track.
[John.]
McLaren 650S.
[laughter.]
- That's the exact car that I asked you - It has to - "What do you not wanna race?" - I don't wanna race that car.
- 'Cause that car's gonna be really fast.
- Yeah, definitely.
Ten-second quarter mile We're gonna need everything we got.
[Joey.]
Oh, definitely.
[John.]
My car is running low 11 second quarter miles.
We're gonna go ahead and add some carbon fiber, try and get our car as light as possible, so we can get into the ten-second range as well.
Be extra careful when you bring out that carbon fiber, dude.
I've reached my max limit on spendability here.
[John.]
Yeah, man, these fenders, you know, steel, they're not too light.
Carbon fiber will actually be a lot lighter.
And you definitely want to install that? - Yeah.
- It's an expensive front end.
You can't just risk it.
[John.]
Spending so much money on car parts and, uh, tunes and modifications, you know My wife has just always been there.
She She never complains, never gives me any grief about it.
At the end of the day, for Michelle's sake, I don't want it to be for nothing.
So that's why we have to win this race.
Man, it's looking nice.
Dude, I'm, like, blown away right now.
The horsepower to weight ratio is gonna be the biggest factor that we can have on this car.
I mean, we're gonna be underestimated, by far.
This guy's gonna look at us and be like, "Pah.
" You know, "This is a a freaking economy car, a little Honda, you know, a four-banger" - Let's see what this thing can do.
- Yeah! [Alecs.]
Let's see if John can drive.
[laughter.]
[engine revving.]
[John.]
Building this car, I feel like I have so much more to prove than some supercar.
I feel like they're gonna get out of their car and feel, like, entitled to this win.
They have this car for a reason.
Well, so do I.
I have my car for a reason, and I intend to prove why.
- [man.]
So what are we running? - Ha, ha! - A McLaren 650S.
- [gasps.]
- [Chad.]
641 horse, at 7,200 RPM.
- [man.]
Right.
It's a pretty - bitchin' lookin' car.
- Yep.
Mid-engine rear-drive - 3253 - It was 350 grand new.
.
We know this thing will run 11:50s.
- We are at least a second off - Supercar time.
- of the supercar time.
- Okay.
We don't just need more power, we need more power, like, with all caps, right? - Yes, all of it.
- That what you're saying? Perfect.
[Richard.]
I'm all in.
I just don't think we can get there with - the amount of nitrous we'd have to add.
- That's what I'm afraid of.
So this thing could give us another three or four hundred horsepower.
[Chad.]
Right.
We've added a supercharger now.
Here, you hold that.
[Chad.]
A supercharger forces a lot more air into the engine, under pressure, a boost, and that makes horsepower.
[Chad.]
Dude Dude.
We start doing testing and see if we're gonna have to change things.
[Richard.]
Testing is gonna be the key.
- Can you finish installing that? - Daphne'd be proud.
Either that or she'd kill us.
Either way.
- We'll take either of those.
- Actually, she'll be mad because she was supposed to run 10:80s in this thing, - with the ProCharger.
- There you go.
[Cole.]
Why don't we put brackets on Mom's urn? That'd be awesome.
She gets to ride along.
- Yeah.
- Yell at us the whole time.
Dude! [gasps.]
- Intimidation factor.
- Yeah.
We put the fuckin' urn on the hood or some shit.
That would freak some people out.
I'm down with that.
- She'd think it was cool.
- Oh, yeah.
[Chad.]
That's a great idea.
We totally have to do that.
No question.
The bad part is, if she's riding in the car with me, she's gonna be yelling at me, "Go, you idiot! They've already left!" [laughter.]
[Manny.]
Driving these cars make me feel like I've achieved my dream.
These cars are my babies, you know, and I don't like to take them on the track, beat them up, you know, God forbid they get some dings and scratches.
But I am very competitive, and a lot of times, uh, people don't see that coming.
All the other built car drivers, they would probably describe me as, uh, a spoiled trust fund baby, which is, uh [chuckles.]
which is very far off.
My parents, you know, sacrificed to get me here when I was 14, and, you know, it wasn't easy.
I was born in 1971 in Tehran, which is the capital of Iran.
It was beautiful.
But when the regime changed in 1979, I was seven or eight years old, the Iran and Iraq War happened, and, completely, it was chaos.
[man yelling.]
[chanting.]
[Manny.]
When you reached the age of 14, the government would take you by force, draft you to the army, and my dad, of course, didn't want me to be one of those kids.
We came to America, and my dad had a friend that owned a gas station and had promised him a job.
We were forced to live in a car for a while, and I'd remember we used to park the car in a parking lot of a supermarket.
My sister was a baby, and I remember sometimes my mom had to wrap her in newspaper because diapers were expensive.
You hit desperation moments in life, you know, rock bottom.
And, you know, it wasn't easy, but, uh, what gave me that spirit to succeed and never give up was the desperation of what my family went through.
And I never want to see those days again.
I'm grateful for everything, even sleeping in a car.
Everything I've done in life, I've tried to succeed and excel in.
I hate losing.
You know, if I lose, having this car, you know, it'd be terrible.
[John.]
Overall, we ended up taking about 100 pounds out of the car.
Last thing we gotta do is test it out and see how much faster we are.
It's just almost like a Transformer, you know, from its original state, you know, from a grocery go-getter to a supercar killer.
You wanna get to the line, uh, preload, get to your launch control, and then let go of the clutch and the e-brake at the same time and the car's gonna take off.
- Got it.
- This way, it'll minimize your chances of breaking stuff.
[John.]
Got it.
By making the car nice and light, we're gonna be moving a lot faster, and I think that's gonna be our biggest advantage over all these other cars out there.
- [engine sputters.]
- [John.]
The fuck was that? [Darden.]
Did he break second gear already? - [sighs.]
Fuck.
- Yeah.
It went in, then it went out.
All right, shut it off.
I'm not mis-shifting.
[John.]
There's nothin' there.
[John.]
Everything was going good till I went for second gear.
Right now, we're not sure if it's a clutch issue or a transmission issue, but whatever it is, we're screwed.
Dollar signs have been going through my head.
The money, the money, the money.
It It It's always an issue with this.
This thing's cursed, man.
It's no joke.
[man on PA.]
series,, block body design Mustang [announcement continues indistinctly.]
[Tiana.]
I haven't been able to, like, bang gears yet, so I don't know if everything was done right.
That's what I'm gonna have to find out right now.
[Brandon.]
We need to just make sure you're able to control it if it gets a little out of hand, in just shiftin' through the gears, 'cause against an automatic, that's that's gonna be difficult.
Raise the clutch up - and let the fucking thing eat, you know? - Okay.
Have some fun with it.
[tires squeal.]
[Tiana.]
It's not an easy car.
You just can't get it and go and it be perfect the first or fifth time, you know? I've gotta get some practice.
[man on PA.]
And in the Mustang [Tiana.]
I dumped the clutch, I just fuckin' let out, and it still bogged.
- [Brandon.]
It didn't like that.
- I came all the way off.
I just let go and it still bogged, so I might, next time, just ride it out a little bit.
[snarls.]
[Tiana.]
That last test run showed that we got tuning issues to work through, computer controlled stuff.
I can do what I can do, but only so far.
It's actually hooking, the car is actually wanting to plant the tire.
We don't have much time, so I've gotta get some more test passes in before we can get ready for this race.
Carried it.
[man.]
What we're talking about here is really a couple of factors.
One is making sure you don't red light.
[Manny.]
Yeah.
And two, and I think even more so importantly, is making sure you're gettin' the power to the ground.
What do you prefer in your cars? Do you ever use the launch control, or do you just do manual? I think you should put it in track mode.
- Yeah.
- And just punch it.
- Let the car do what it's gonna do.
- Ooh, I like that.
It's gonna shift better on its own - Yeah.
- than you're gonna shift in manual.
With your McLaren, this is right off the showroom floor, and and the technology is really to to help take the the need for an experienced driver out.
You know, one thing you can guarantee, Manny, is you're gonna show up to the race and you're gonna show up not broken.
These guys, you know, they're probably gonna be really stressed.
They're really gonna be worried about the supercar, what it is, you know, - how it'll perform, et cetera - Yeah.
And that's intimidating.
[Manny.]
I got the fastest car and the best technology, so the computer will do all the work.
I've just gotta sit there and push that launch control.
[Chad.]
We put a ProCharger supercharger on it, and this thing will support maybe 1,200 horsepower.
The car is very fast, but it's also real easy for the thing to spin the tires, so it's gonna be on me.
[Chad.]
We owe it to Daphne to do everything we can to hand the supercar owner his ass.
Okay.
[John.]
I just dropped another $1,000 on a Twin Disc clutch.
We spent all this money, we've put all this time in, you know? Uh, Michelle's just like, "Spend what you have to, do what you have to.
" You know, "Get ready, you know? I want you to win this race.
" I just don't want it to be for nothing, you know? [Tiana.]
There's so many things runnin' through my head.
"Hope it goes straight, hope it doesn't spin, hope I can shift it.
" You know, so much hard work was put into something that we built.
I don't want to disappoint anybody.
I just need to grow some balls and just shift it a lot faster and a lot harder.
- How you doing? - [John.]
Good.
Nice and early.
I'm T-Mark.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, T-Mark.
- [T-Mark.]
Gettin' your workout in! - [John.]
Oh, yeah! [T-Mark chuckles.]
The issue we're doin' right now, - we've got three spark plugs broke.
- Got it.
So we're gonna be trying to work on getting those extracted.
[T-Mark.]
Okay, okay.
[John.]
Last night, we broke three spark plugs in the head.
I get a phone call from Joey.
His first words were, "Fu We're fucked.
" This is how the plug's supposed to look, right here.
When we popped 'em out, this whole part of the thread's broke off inside the cylinder.
So this is what we're dealin' with.
We've got this ring right here and all these threads inside the head still.
[John.]
If we don't get these spark plugs out in the next hour or so, there's not gonna be a race for us.
Let's get to it.
[John.]
Someone else pullin' in.
[John.]
Girl driver, huh? Never underestimate the girls.
- Mustang.
Mustang.
New body stock.
- [engine revs.]
[Tiana.]
The only way I lose this race is you know, me messing up the situation.
Me mis-shifting, me not launching right me totally fucking up.
[laughs.]
- Tiana, by the way.
- Hi.
John.
- John.
- This is my car.
- Nice.
- We were testing last night, I was like, - "I don't wanna break it" - Tiana.
Oh, dude, who are you telling? I have the worst luck with my car ever.
This thing is just issue after issue, after issue, it's like [Tiana.]
So, the Honda I mean, we got here and it was being worked on, and Good luck.
Good luck, son.
Good luck.
- Okay, fingers crossed.
- Which one is it? I think you're here, no? - [John.]
Got it? - [Joey.]
Yeah.
- [sighs.]
- [Joey.]
Whew! [Darden.]
There you go, you got it.
- [Joey.]
Whew.
- [John.]
Yes! [Darden.]
You got that right here.
[John.]
Fuck, dude.
Man.
- Check it.
- [exhales.]
Those shavings are okay? - What's going on on the camera? - Ah, it's got a little bit of shaving.
[John.]
So now that we've got those three spark plugs out, we've still gotta make sure there's no metal shavings in there.
You don't want any foreign object in the motor.
That's what we're workin' with right now.
[Chad.]
Oh, yeah.
This is gonna be epic.
[indistinct chatter.]
[man.]
You need some power steering fluid? - [Chad.]
Pardon me? - Power steering fluid a little low? If you mean power steering pump removed for ProCharger, then, yes.
[laughs.]
That's exactly what's the problem! - How are you? John.
- Chad, nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- Street car.
- How are you, brother? - Brandon.
- How are you? - Hi, Tiana.
- Tiana, Chad.
Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.
- Is this one yours? - Yeah.
Cool, I like it.
What's it got? Ooh, a stick car! Dude! What's it got in it? Eh, a little Chevy motor.
- [Chad.]
Oh, you went LS? - Yeah.
- What trans is it? - Fifty-fifty-six.
Ooh! You're good.
[Tiana.]
I wanna hold back.
I don't wanna be the one that stands out.
I'm just downplaying the car a little bit.
How long have you had this combo together? - A week.
- Yeah? [laughter.]
[Chad.]
The Mustang is bitchin'.
And the chick drivin' it with a stick is just ultra-cool.
That car is well-sorted on the drag strip.
So we'll see how it does out here.
So we have a McLaren coming, we have a Honda, and we have an LS, and then we have the dinosaur, an actual small-block Chevrolet.
Ta-da! But this was my wife's daily driver car every single day.
We put 50,000 miles on this car in the last six years.
Stereo, air conditioning Literally, daily driver car.
[Chad.]
I'm hopin' we can do Daphne proud enough.
I will do whatever I have to do to win.
I mean, short of crashin' somebody, but don't tell the McLaren guy that.
Yeah, I'm anxious to see what other cars are out there, so Hopefully no Camaros.
Here we go.
A Mustang? [Manny.]
That's not good.
Check this thing out.
He's over there already, peeping it out.
[door alarm chimes.]
- How are you doing, guys? Manny.
- How you doin'? - Nice to meet you.
- And you.
- Chad, nice meeting you.
- Nice meeting you, Chad.
John, nice to meet you.
- You got a beautiful car.
- Thank you.
- This is what we're dealing with, huh? - Hi.
Tiana.
Nice to meet you, Tiana.
Oh.
Wow.
- It's badass.
- Yeah.
[Chad.]
We're the underdogs.
Everybody here is the underdog compared to that thing.
I mean, if this guy has a half a clue as to what he's doin', then that thing's gonna leave like a slingshot, and it makes real power.
[Tiana.]
The car that I'm most concerned about is the supercar, the McLaren.
I mean, that thing's got so much technology in it.
You could buy a few houses with that thing.
It's just gonna be floor it and go.
- [laughter.]
- Yeah.
Oh, yeah! [Tiana.]
His launch control is really tricky and he has to time it right, and I hope that fucks him up on the top end.
I just hope, like Fuck up that and we'll be good.
[chuckles.]
[Manny.]
Toughest challenge right here.
The Mustang is the one I'm worried about.
That's about 800-plus horsepower.
It's got nitrous, but the trick is, it's manual transmission.
She has to hit it just at the right time, shifting.
So, with my technology, and launch control and traction control, I think I've got a good, uh, advantage.
[John.]
These shavings are all cleared out.
Right now, we need to get the spark plugs in and get this car to the fuckin' starting line.
Hold on.
Hold on, hold on.
- Is it good? - All right Uh, John, you guys gonna be able to get over there? - [both.]
Yeah.
- Okay, and start it up? - Jumpin' 'em in right now.
- Okay, we just wanted to make sure that your car was able to move.
- Yeah, I'll be able to drive over.
- Okay, so, when you're ready, - give me a thumbs up and we'll go.
- Okay.
Right, Joey? - Huh? - I'll be able to drive it over, huh? Yeah.
All right, drivers and crews, may I have your attention over here, please? Drivers and crews, please.
So, uh, what we're gonna do next is we are going to leave the pit area.
So get in your cars, turn 'em on, and we'll guide you over to your, uh, lane assignments.
[Chad.]
Yeah.
[Joey.]
Yeah, dude, we're cuttin' it super close.
Everybody's already on the line.
Fucking "Last Minute John," they'll call me.
[engine stuttering.]
[engine revs.]
[engine whines.]
[Darden.]
Hey, John, shift through the gears, even if it looks dumb.
[engine revving.]
- [John.]
Good.
- [man.]
You ready? Good job.
- Woo! - [John.]
Thank you.
[cheering and laughter.]
- You're done.
- [Chad.]
He made it! - Well played, sir.
Well played.
- [chuckling.]
That's how you make an entrance, right there.
- Yeah? - Right? I appreciate you persevering, - thank you for that.
- Appreciate it.
[T-Mark.]
Okay, the way the lights will go is it will be solid red and solid green.
You wanna go on green.
One false start equals a disqualification.
[Chad.]
My wife is sayin' right now, "Don't get beat by some shitbox Honda, don't let a fuckin' Ford hand you your ass.
and sure as fuck don't have a McLaren beat you.
" [John.]
Fighter goes into the ring, he don't feel good that day, there ain't no rescheduling.
You know, I got my wife and my kid out here watching.
We're just gonna try and send it.
[John.]
I'm ready to race, man.
[Tiana.]
I built this car from the bottom up with my husband, my friends, my team But when the light drops, it's on me.
[Manny.]
I got the fastest car and the best technology.
I've just gotta sit there and push that launch control.
[engines revving.]
[man on radio.]
Tiana! Tiana won.
Woo! Fuck.
Woo! Acceleratin', baby! Woo! Woo! You guys all fucking grenaded tires, parts fell off the Honda, - I thought it came off your car.
- [Tiana.]
What? - No shit! - [Chad.]
Haulin' ass.
- Oh, he passed me at the finish line.
- Did he? Oh, yeah, I was third.
Oh, man.
[John.]
I got no nitrous goin' through the line, no nitrous hittin' the motor.
We got nothin'.
- Great job.
- Where were you? I wasn't looking straight.
I don't know where anybody was! - My launch control failed.
- [Brandon groans.]
- It failed.
- Yeah.
You launched out on the Mustang.
- [laughing.]
- You did good, dude.
.
Dude, that was all motor, dude.
That was all motor.
Are you kidding me? You know what that'll look like to all your friends? Like, all motor.
That was not nitrous, that's not turbo.
That's all motor.
- Aah, dude! - That was awesome.
- Had fun, though.
- At least I came second.
Yeah, that's right.
[laughing.]
Now we need a cigar to celebrate.
- [Chad.]
He got me at the top.
- [T-Mark.]
Great run.
All right.
Very nice.
All right, in position four we have John.
- Nicely done.
- [man.]
Yeah! Honda! Is that my my trophy? - Yes.
- [laughter.]
[Chad.]
Cheat! You blew his fender off.
- Yeah! - Yeah! - She did it.
- I'll take it.
- Yes, there we go.
All right.
- They were good.
[John.]
Once I hit that nitrous button, absolutely nothing happened.
My car literally felt like I let off the gas, and it was full throttle, but it just completely started to bog out.
[makes sputtering sound.]
This whole car has been It's a money pit, is what it is.
And, you know, sometimes it puts strain on a marriage.
I'm just glad my wife has always been there through thick and thin for me, and has my back no matter what.
The motor's still good and it's still goin' strong.
- [man.]
Yeah, no false start either.
- It's still all a win-win.
And in position three - we have Chad.
- [man.]
Yay, Chad! [T-Mark.]
Very nicely done.
[Chad.]
I think it was really a closer race than I think anybody expected.
I mean, everybody has their struggles, but, you know, this was to honor Daphne, and bein' able to share it with the kids and give them this experience, it's what it's about.
And in position two we have Manny.
[cheering and applause.]
[laughter.]
[Manny.]
I feel terrible! I used launch control, my launch control sequence failed, and it cost me the race.
This race really changed my mindset, of really being more focused, and don't rely on technology, take control of the car.
And, uh Oh, I have a total appreciation for shitboxes.
[laughs.]
I I saw firsthand, uh, how much effort and detail these owners put into their cars, and, uh, it was a beautiful, uh, scene to see.
And our champion for today who will go on to the championship round - Damn! - And race against five other champions - We got some work to do.
- is Tiana.
[cheering.]
[Tiana.]
We got some work to do, guys! [T-Mark chuckles.]
It was all about, you know, throttle response, and just hopes and dreams.
And, you know, thanks to my fucking awesome team for getting me here.
[laughs.]
I couldn't have done it without them.
And it was an honor racing all of you.
And, you know, I heard that your wife is with you on your car, and that is so fucking awesome.
[voice breaking.]
Um, I wished you were out front, to be honest.
Like, that was that was pretty fucking cool.
[Tiana.]
I didn't see anybody.
I had my eyes just to those checkered flags.
I probably gained a bit of confidence in myself.
You know, I raced against a very expensive supercar.
My husband, he puts his heart and soul into cars and into our shop.
It's our whole life.
[Tiana.]
This is what we live for.
Like, this is what we do.
I'll do it till the day I die, or till the day I can't drive anymore.
It was an honor.
It was so much fun, guys.
[laughs.]
[T-Mark.]
Very nice.
Let's give 'em a round of applause.
Very nice.
[cheering and applause.]
[Tiana exclaims.]