First Tandems

Let me tell you about the first time I hit tandems, well, legally. It was quite the experience. You know how I said Erik (@eherschend) and I tried to go door to door? Well that really got me hooked so I looked around to have some door bars installed. Since I already had a 4 point Autopower cage installed and painted, I wanted something removable so I could eventually take the entire thing out and have it recoated eventually. Someone told me about Matt Fields’ shop, Drift Cave (@driftcave) and how they did custom fab work. I hit them up not knowing shit about what I wanted and essentially left the project entirely up to them. I email them asking about the job and how much it would cost, not providing a single detail about dimensions or materials (cause well frankly, I didn’t fuckin’ know) and they told me to bring it by. I drive over to the shop  and Mr. Fields himself comes out to take a look at the car (If I’m being honest I had no idea that it was the Matt Fields, I never seen any photos of him and I didn’t want to assume the first White guy I see named Matt was him). They told me they’d have to cut the door panels – which I anticipated – and it would be roughly $600. Cool sounds like a plan! They did an amazing job. As you can see from the photo below, the door panels remained intact and it’s incredibly subtle. Literally exactly how I hoped it would be! It came out to $832 total, well worth the money.

The following weekend was the next Drift Central (@driftcentral_official) event and man was I ready. The tech inspectors were a bit iffy about my cage so I had to wait for the OK from Carlos- the host of the event. I pull up to ask him and he was like “whaaat these are sick“, I think that meant they passed, not sure though. Anyway, I wanted to do some solo runs to get a feel for the track layout before I started officially tandeming and I got a couple runs in before John (@youngebola_) pulls up next to me and says to go for it. I wasn’t really warmed up but my proud ass was like fuck it I ain’t no bitch. Of course the more experienced driver chases so the only thing that was going through my mind was DO. NOT. SPIN. OUT. DO. NOT. SUCK. I think the fact that I was absolutely ecstatic contributed to my level of driving because I’m not sure I messed up once the entire day, well I didn’t crash at least.

Driving solo is fun and all but after a while it gets incredibly monotonous since there’s no margin of risk and a bunch of room for error. With tandems, adrenaline skyrockets mainly because I don’t want to fuck up the other driver’s car and it keeps you on your toes. I had the honor of sliding with two notoriously good drivers John (@yungebola_) and Robby (@robby.s.wayne). This was a bit intimidating to say the least because I’m not sure they knew I had zero experience with it, I don’t think I’d ever be able to live down smacking into one of them. While I was doing runs with John, Robby jumps in out of no where and it’s just round after round and over time I get more and more rowdy, like let. me. touch. them. doors. breh. Eventually I even chased! Not to sound weird or anything but I’ll admit I for sure wanted to impress these dudes (Nah Justin, there’s no getting around how weird that sounds ya fuckin’ weirdo), like these are some of the better drivers around my area, I gotta represent Uprise! Oh yeah I’m part of a club, well a group of friends, called Uprise.

I also jumped into a tandem with Erik which was a blast, sorry for the shit tier photo, it’s actually a screen grab from a video you’ll see in a second! I think with some practice we can definitely be damn near door to door.

At the end of the day I could see the GTA San Andreas Respect+ floating around as well as that infamous beat ringing in my ears. Not sure how these dudes were mirroring each other so well, definitely need to get to their level of driving! Anyway, enjoy these videos shot by my wife (@the.rizzamejia)!

This day was by far the funnest day I’ve ever had with cars. Last but not least the total including the parts from the previous post: $13,884 + $1150 + $832 = $15,866! If you’re new to cars, it’s not too late to get out!