Fast N' Loud

What's he doing over there?

Are we ready to rock?

Shredded.

Hey, good job.

'Right now on Fast N' Loud..

Hot rod hunter Richard Rawlings and the Gas Monkey crew

tune in to a whole new groove

when they team up with one of SEMA's top young guns...'

Meet Big Mike!

'..To build Gas Monkey's first ever tuner car.'

Have you guys ever built a Japanese car before?

Are you sure this is the one you wanna use?

'And then, Richard falls head-over-heels

for a pristine Porsche 944.'

1,500 miles? Jeez, that's cool.

'Before gambling...' Maybe we should make a little bet.

'..On a 1915 Willys Overland.'

If I can get it running, I'll go 12.5. Game on.

So I drug you out of sunny California

to bring you to Arizona, but it's good to see you.

Good to see you, too.

How's it going on your end of the spectrum?

I'm blessed. Things have been going really well.

Especially since that SEMA Battle of the Builders. I know, man.

Here we are out in Arizona and I've got Big Mike with me.

He came over from California cos he's big into import tuners.

'Tune-up import cars sprang out of the California hot rod scene

in the '70s and '80s and guys started modifying Japanese imports

instead of the American classics to look hotter at run like hell.

Once the movies tapped into the trend

the scene blew up all over the world.

They're a huge part of car culture now and Gas Monkey wants in.'

I've been watching the trend keep getting bigger and over the years

we've talked about wanting to build one.

Aaron and I used to dream about all these different things

we'd do to a 240 or 280Z, but I don't know a whole bunch about it.

'The thing is there's so many people throwing them together now,

they've become a cliche. All about loud paint,

exhaust, hunky body lines. If Gas Monkey's gonna take that on,

I wanna kick the doors down Gas Monkey style

and have them go, "holy shit!" That's where Big Mike comes in.'

The first finalist, Big Mike.

'In 2016, Big Mike was a top ten finalist

in SEMA's Battle of the Builders.'

The car's a '92 Honda Prelude, but that's really just the canvas.

'It was like David and Goliath.

During the day, Mike's an x-ray tech and had to build

his early model Honda in a friend's garage when he got home from work.

And he still knocked out big-money hot rods from shops that do this for a living.'

Running into Mike from time to time,

I said "If you ever find a super-clean 280Z, give me a call.

If I buy it, maybe you can help us out and get it built."

Well, he did, so here we are.'

You must be Charlie. I'm the guy.

Cool. Richard Rawlings. Good to meet you.

You got a bunch of garages. You got a bunch of cars? Where?

Right behind door number two.

Whoa. Rad!

Look at this, Richard.

'Mike's a man of his word. Not only did he find me THE 280Z

I've been looking for, but it might be the best one out there.'

I bought it in '75, and then I took it off the road.

Feel the fender lips on this thing. The body's straight.

Should be zero rust on it. This is the original dash?

Correct. Everything's original.

That's hard to find, I know that part.

Look at this interior.

Wow.

Rubber's not cracking. This thing's even better than in the pictures.

Dude, quit. Don't tell him how good it is. I haven't bought it yet.

I couldn't help myself. It is beautiful. It's a nice car.

Look at that. Look at how pristine it is.

The gas tank was drained. Injector lines were drained out.

I periodically rotated also, so that's a good engine.

'What I was amazed at was the guy stored it correctly.

He drained fluids and left it there. Took the battery out.

He talk about rolling the motor over by hand.

This is truly a car that's been sitting since 1982

that you could dump gas and oil in and it'd probably fire right up.'

Check this out, Mike.

The original tag hanging in here, "starting instructions."

I put the oil changes that I did on there. OK.

I have a tech manual and the owner's manual

along with the original rims and hubs.

Why are you selling it?

I have other hobbies that I work on right now,

restoring old mining equipment.

Ah, so you've gotta free up some room. I know how that is.

'I was impressed, but I still need to get a good deal.

Sit back and watch, dude. This is how I work.'

All right, so, what're you asking for?

Well, it's a real nice vehicle.

What about 10?

I don't know. 10's good.

That's an all right price.

Mike looked like he was, "We should go for that."

I was hopin'!

You be quiet.

I mean, it's cool. It's my favourite colour.

How many miles, 13,000.13,400, but who's counting?!

Gotcha. How about...

...seven? I'll pay you in cash.

Uh, I don't think so.

'They're still pretty far apart.

I'm getting nervous about the whole thing.'

It's got a door ding, it's got a scratch.

I was just, like, "OK, Richard, just buy it."

Tell you what. What?

I like the car a lot, just sits in my garage.

I'd like to see it go to a good home. I paid basically $8,000 for this car.

What about eight grand? You'll take an eight for it now?

Yep. It's a deal. You got it.

That is super-killer, man. I think that's pretty good, Richard.

I was gonna try to get him for five

until you started telling me how perfect it was!

I'm sorry, but it's worth it!

'We ended up making a deal with Charlie for eight grand.

You're gonna come to Dallas and help us build it. Yes, I am. Cool.'

All right, Charlie. 8,000 bucks in cash. Thank you.

Thank you, man. Charlie, beautiful car.

I'll get it picked up in a couple of days. No problem. All right, sir.

Great to meet you. Well, Big Mike,

I guess you and I need to order some parts.

'That fact the Richard asked me to work with the Gas Monkeys

to build the first tuner car ever is an honour, a dream come true

and I'm gonna knock it out of the park.'

I can't wait, man. Let's kill it.

It's a beautiful thing and I feel very blessed.

You say this is an honour for you.

Absolutely. I mean - Cool, I'm not paying you!

OK, we'll talk about that later, off camera. Still not paying you.

Did you have a good trip in? I did. Cool. Car should be here any second.

I can't wait for everyone to see it. They're gonna love it.

They gotta love you first, man. Look at y'all cleaning up!

Hey, everybody, I want you to meet Big Mike. What's up, Mike?

They call you "Big Mike"? Yes, they do.

You're barely over the table!

It's my waistline and a couple other things.

Anyways, you guys have heard about Big Mike. He builds import tuners.

SEMA builder? Yep. Wow, OK.

'We Monkeys have been wondering what Richard has in store for our us,

and then he shows up with none other than Big Mike himself.

It's no mystery now. Not at all.

A tuner? Yeah, we've been talking about getting together

and doing a collab build. We bought the baddest 280Z you've ever seen.

'Wow, a Japanese import car? That's definitely out of our wheelhouse.

I mean, we build classic American hot rods here.

I don't know what to think about it. It's gonna be different.'

Oh, cats, there's Mater. Let's go check out the car.

All right. Let's go.

'The Monkeys were less than ecstatic,

but honestly that didn't surprise me.

These guys aren't any more immune

to the stereotypes that exist around tuner cars than the next guy,

but we have something outside that should help change that.'

And guess what colour it is?

No surprise there. I'm so shocked. It's green!

Are you kidding me? Dude.

That is a nice car. I mean, you've said "nice car" before,

but you've been full of it before.

This is 13,000 original miles. It looks brand new, pretty much.

The guy were got it from almost the only owner.

He drained the fluids in 1979 and kept it in his garage like this.

Oh, my God, look how clean this thing is.

Dude, this is a excellent specimen.

'The car's kinda nice. It's not American, but it's nice.'

You sure this is the one?

Yeah. We're gonna cut it up. Oh, my God.

Wow. Have you guys ever built a Japanese car before?

Hell, no. Yep? Not me. No. I'm kinda ashamed to say it, but I had a Civic.

Why are you ashamed? This is the whole Fast N' Furious era.

Did you have the Civic that had the little window and the back hatch?

No. Oh, OK. That's a CRX.

Oh, is that what it is? I'm ashamed that I know that too!

I've had a CRX. I've had multiple Hondas. I come from the same era.

That whole import era ushered in all these turbo motors

that everybody used on V8s. That's where it all started.

Trust me, this isn't gonna be like that.

I wanna keep it very '70s era specific, use the body lines.

Widen it out just a little bit. Use a flare.

Bad ass. Mirrors on the fenders, just like that. Yes, exactly.

That's killer. The powerplant and the suspension is new school.

So we're talking full suspension. Full.

You name it, differential, topknot manifold.

He's says we're gonna be at about 500 horse.

Dude, for this light car? Yes.

It'll be '70s vintage looking and it'll just go.

Right on. It's gonna go. You said flares.

I did. So are we talking bolt-on? Are we moulding flares? Bolt-on.

Predominantly, it's gonna go right on.

We might have to tweak a little bit but it won't be very heavy.

Heavy at points. Yeah, exactly.

You build a lot of really crazy cars here. This should be more fluid.

Mike, you might actually get enough time to paint this one!

'So we've come up with a pretty good plan on our 280Z

to take it from 1975 to 2017, Gas Monkey style,

with a little bit of Japanese influence.

First rule about import building is it needs to be powerful,

fast, nimble, and we're bringing in the best parts from Japan to make that happen.

Under the hood, we want an engine bay that'll punch you in the face.