The Decade Is Over & I’m Getting Old

2019 has been a wild ride. It’s the first year I looked back on and realized that 25 years ago was 1994, and not 1975. Am I the only one that feels like they’re getting really old, really fast?

_MG_4245Winter-Jam-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
_MG_3757Winter-Jam-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
_MG_3127Winter-Jam-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

Aching muscles aside, the year was filled with quite a few events covered by myself and many of my counterparts here at Speedhunters. More than most other years, at least for me.

It started with my first ever drift event coverage during Winter Jam at Sonoma Raceway. I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into, honestly. I’d never covered drifting events before, and I knew the weather would be a challenge, since it almost always rains during this event. And I hate the rain. But despite my skepticism, I’m quite glad I made it a point to get out there. I was invited by Faruk Kugay, and he promised it would be worthwhile, which turned out to be true. I saw some epic slides, enjoyed a ride along with my other friend Marcus, and even made some new ones.

Which brings me to Denis’s ‘Dapper Drift’ E55. Throughout all of Winter Jam, Denis’s E55 was the one car I had my heart set on. It was different, but not because it was some sort of crazy-kitted drift missile. Instead, it was sliding in elegance, with a slightly aggressive rumble and supercharger whine as the revs bounced off the limiter in each transition.

IMG_1203Dennis-E55AMG-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_1277Dennis-E55AMG-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_1396Dennis-E55AMG-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

I made it a point to stop by Denis’s pit and coordinate a full story with him later that day, and the end result was epic. We got to see the little details and precise craftsmanship put into his build to make it do what it does. And after getting the opportunity to really dig into his personality, I realized that the Dapper Drift E55 was truly a portrayal of Denis’s own personal steeze.

IMG_1614Jesse-M4-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_6329Justin-Ultra4-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
_MG_9737Macrus-Fry-510-for-Speedhunters-by-Naveed-Yousufzai

Not too long after, I figured I’d link up and share some stories of friends’ cars that I’d been in talks with about featuring for a while. Jesse showed us how to build quite the controversial BMW M4, Justin shared his Ultra4-winning rig, and I managed to finally get Marcus out of his shop.

IMG_0231RGruppe-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_7089RGruppe-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_0377RGruppe-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

Come February, it was time to tell the tale of the RGruppe guys. This group of older heads have the hearts and soul of teenagers, from driving like madmen all across California, to pulling pranks on each other and out-drinking anyone who dares put up that challenge. These misfits are the pinnacle of what we all wish to be when we get old: still modifying our cars, without a care of what anyone else thinks.

IMG_0847Turbo-Hoses-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_0999Turbo-Hoses-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

It was through one of the RGruppe members that I met Hoover from Turbo Hoses as well. The name of his shop really threw me off, as I had no idea what I’d be walking into when he invited me to take a tour one Sunday morning. With vintage BMW Motorsport cars, Noble race and road cars, and even a jet-powered Lotus Elise, Turbo Hoses had all sides of the spectrum covered.

IMG_9216G-911RS-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

A few weeks later, my good friend G messaged me about taking delivery of his BMW M3 Sport Evo. I knew I wanted to run a story on the car since it’s the E30 M3 to have, but after thinking things a bit more through, I realized that this wasn’t the only homologated car I knew of in the area, let alone in G’s collection. So I felt inspired and decided to pitch Paddy on doing a series of homologation specials for the site – seven stories of seven legends. It was a different approach to telling the traditional Speedhunters story, but what can I say, I like history, and I like taking risks. And I think it’s safe to say you guys enjoyed seeing the cars we only ever hear about on old Top Gear episodes.

IMG_0998CRRRewind2019-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_1354CRRRewind2019-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

With the homologation special wrapped up, I took part in one of the most fun rally events I’d ever been on. It was three days of back-to-back driving nirvana, in two cars that couldn’t have been more appropriate for the occasion. As you may now know, one of them ended up becoming a personal project.

IMG_3610Yan-And-Alex-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_5275Teds-Cobra-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

When I finally returned home, I knew I wanted to get back on track with sharing more stories that I had in my pipeline. Jan and Alex Echeverri came up first, with their 2002 Tourings, followed by Ted in his 200mph Cobra. Both stories hit home for me, being passion-built projects by owners who had a long history of living outside of the norm.

IMG_6697CRNVL-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_6318CRNVL-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_9453CATuned-OpenHouse-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_9780CATuned-OpenHouse-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_1960LUFT6-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_2052LUFT6-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

As I noted earlier, this year had been full of events – at least for me. With spring and summer being prime car show season, I managed to finally attend one of CATuned’s ‘Open Haus’ mornings, the first-ever CARNVL event hosted by my good friend Cary, and of course Luftgekühlt – perhaps the most iconic show I’d ever been to, being that the venue was a freaking movie set at Universal Studios.

In the midst of all the show travel, I took a break to link up with Eric Straw from StrawFab and share his beast of a Datsun Roadster. This little thing was on its second iteration of being resto-modded, and if you haven’t had the chance to read the full story, I’d strongly recommend you do. There is no other roadster like this one.

IMG_0595New-Stratos-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_0304New-Stratos-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

During the Lancia shoot for my homologation series, Luca mentioned that they’d become the sole distributor for the New Stratos. His ties with Italian carmakers has provided some fruitful opportunities to leverage these types of things, and luckily for me, Luca has no problem sharing these ventures with the rest of the world to see. So when they finally took delivery of their first one, I couldn’t resist shooting it.

IMG_0238New-Stratos-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

Based on a Ferrari F430 Scuderia, the New Stratos packs a serious punch and is the epitome of modern day coach building. I mean, just look at the thing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a modern car pay this much homage to its ancestral past.

IMG_9437Monterey-Car-Week-2019-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_7171Monterey-Car-Week-2019-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

Getting back to all the event coverage, the next few months consisted of my favorite time of the year – the end of summer. Typically, I look forward to this time because of Monterey Car Week, but this year I was able to add the first annual Sonoma Speed Festival to the mix, which meant for even more historical racing. I know vintage racing isn’t the most popular type of event amongst our readers, but it’s honestly the most exciting from a personal standpoint. I think that with a little bit of time, and a little bit more exposure to this type of stuff, the youth will finally start to come around and really learn to appreciate the significance of these sorts of events. Because frankly, if it wasn’t for these cars, we likely wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are now in terms of enthusiast cars.

IMG_6567McLaren-600LT-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

During the small gap period between Sonoma Speed Festival and Monterey Car Week, I had the opportunity to take a McLaren 600LT out for a weekend. This was my first time on track with a modern supercar, and holy shit did it blow my mind. I’m still aching a bit from the g-forces this thing pulled on Turn 2 at Laguna Seca. Did I mention how much I hate aging?…

After the track, I took it out to the local roads that I frequent during my spare time, and it was then where I realized how useless these types of cars are outside of the racetrack. There was no way anyone could safely drive these types of cars at 100% on public roads. Put simply, they’re just too fast.

IMG_7306911ClubSport-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

I realized that even more after swapping back into G’s 911 Clubsport the weekend after, where everything was literally the opposite. Feel like driving at 100% without killing yourself? Get yourself a lightweight 911.

IMG_8728-2Koenig-C62-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_9062Koenig-C62-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

Moving into the fall season is another great time for cars here in California. With the weather finally cooling down a bit, it’s much easier to drive cars that would otherwise suck in the heat. Cars like, I don’t know, a street-legal 962.

IMG_2066RADwood-LA-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

When G took delivery of this Koenig C 62, I knew it was going to be the wildest thing I would ever drive. And surely, it didn’t disappoint. It’s a proper thoroughbred being a full-blown Porsche 962 underneath its carbon street-legal body. Why anyone would even want to build something like this in the first place is far beyond my comprehension, but all I can say is that it is as glorious as you’d expect. You may have even caught a glimpse of it during RADwood LA.

IMG_9938MrK-240z-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

Speaking of glorious, Mr. K’s personal 240Z fit the bill quite well too, but more so from a presence perspective. His car came into my good friend Rob Fuller’s shop for some maintenance, and luckily, his sidekick Alvin hooked me up with the opportunity to tell its story. If you ever wondered what the father of the Z-car drove during his stay in California, wonder no more.

IMG_0507RiyadhAutoSalonCoverage-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

I later wrapped up this year’s final event coverage with my trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for their first ever Global Auto Salon. It was my first time ever leaving the country after immigrating here, and it couldn’t have been better.

Saudi Arabia is a country close to my own origins, and ever since I left when I was three years old, I’d always wanted to make an excuse to go back and see it all as an adult. Despite not being able to make way over to Afghanistan, I still managed to get a taste of what authentic Middle Eastern culture was all about, even if it was automotive focused. It was an experience I’ll hold close to my heart for years to come.

IMG_8432Amirs-F40-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

But before I wrap things up, lets not forget my biggest highlights from this year.

If you’re even remotely into cars, then you likely have a top 10 list of aspirations you wish to own at some point in your life. If you’re heavily invested into the love for cars, like me, then you’ve probably doubled down on that list by narrowing your choices into more specific cars. Cars like the Calsonic R32 GT-R, Adam Carolla’s Coca-Cola 935, or even the BMW Motorsport’s E9 CSL ‘Batmobile’. With a tough list of choices, it’s hard to pick #1.

But for me, number one was met the day I laid eyes on Amir’s F40, as he casually cruised past me on the 101 highway in San Mateo, four years ago.

IMG_7906Amirs-F40-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai
IMG_8574Amirs-F40-For-SpeedHunters-By-Naveed-Yousufzai

From that moment on, my heart was set on getting a story on his car, and through some rigorous networking I finally managed to bring that story to life this past October. I won’t give too many details away, as I’d prefer you guys read it to really understand the ‘specialness’ of the car, but I will say that meeting my hero car was one of my biggest highlights of 2019.

Naveed Yousufzai
Instagram: eatwithnaveed

ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

13 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

Cool recap!! I think the F-40 is the perfect Ferrari. I hate that you sold your GT-R but I'm still working on that scale model of it. I'm looking forward to seeing the Porsche project come together. Please keep the cool stories coming! T-7

Author2

Much love man, thanks!

3

....decade end in 2021, not 2020. You dont start counting at 0, you start counting at 1

4

its the end of the second decade of the 2000s, i.e. the last year of the 201X era. we now move into the 202X era, I suppose...

Author5

That's actually not entirely true, but you are welcome to count the decades as you wish. =)

6

Its mathematics. Its not a matter of opinion. You start counting at 1.

You're not alone, Neumans millennium party was ruined because of the same thing.

7

Do you start a new day at 01:00 rather than 00:00?

8

The day starts at 0:0:1

as in the previous day ends at 0:0:0 and the new day begins at 0:0:1

9

I came to say this. Lol.

10

Older maybe. Wiser? Surely.

I wish for wilder and more exciting ride on SH in 2020.

11

I really can't believe it's about to be the end of a decade
A lot of major things happened especially during the initial days of the Speedhunters and now look where we are
Can't wait for many great things in 2020!

12
thathellastockusdm3rdgenyaris@instagram

yeah man im getting old too :)

-Tofu

13

Getting older... Gosh I hope we aren’t the 21st century equivalent of guys with Chevelles in the 80s. That was not the best look. I think (read: want to believe) that that car culture is embraced by all demographics, and it’s not just an Old Guy thing. Track days are too much fun. Too many years left to enjoy this stuff. Age just neatly separated what we do this year from what we did last year.

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS