From Borrowed Ferraris to 70-Car Fleet: The Xtreme Experience

Fifteen years ago, Adam Olalde knocked on every supercar dealership and exotic car owner's door in Chicago with an audacious pitch: "Can I borrow your Ferrari? I'm putting together this cool thing."

Enough people said yes. His first track day event? Pure comedy. No helmets, no walkie-talkies, just people in borrowed supercars told to "go that way." Most spun into the sand and never made it back around.

He charged $150 (versus $2,000/day rentals). Thousands showed up. Light bulb moment achieved.

Today, The Xtreme Experience runs 50-60 events nationwide with 70 supercars, 20 mechanics, and 2 semi trucks. Last year alone: 88,000 people drove supercars. Total since 2012: nearly 500,000 drivers.

Most popular? Ferrari edges Lamborghini, but the C8 Corvette "moves people the most" when they exit.

Adam's philosophy: "Always turn around and look at your car one more time." His first car was a '95 Pontiac Grand Prix from his dad. His AC/DC anthem: "For Those About to Rock." His dream car: Mercedes SLS AMG Black Series in yellow.

His daily driver? Burnt copper Mercedes G63 AMG—"sounds like a boat, burns 3 gallons per minute. Wouldn't trade it for anything."

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Chapters

• 0:05 Global Hellos And Road-Spotting
• 2:21 EV Vans And The ID.Buzz
• 3:31 Hunting For Used Cars Online
• 5:00 Listener Photos And Events Page
• 6:32 Meet Adam From Extreme Experience
• 8:20 The First Track Events And Early Chaos
• 11:41 Marketing Breakthroughs And $150 Drives
• 12:42 Touring Nationwide And Fan-Favorite Cars
• 14:20 Keeping A Supercar Fleet Alive
• 16:02 Milestones: Smiles, Scale, And Fleet Stats
• 18:00 First Cars: Grand Prix To Jetta
• 20:40 Respecting Power And Learning On Track
• 22:18 Early Supercars And Warehouse Memories
• 24:10 Soundtrack For Speed: ACDC
• 25:00 Daily Driver Reality And The G63
• 27:00 Dream Cars: SLS Black And GT3 RS
• 29:05 Flip-Flops, Fitment, And FAQs
• 31:06 Closing Thanks And Ways To Connect

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:05

Welcome back to All the Cars I've Loved Before, your authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia where our guests are unique. Each auto has an era, and every car tells a story. So you know, indeed you know the time. It's time to plug in, get little briefs under the nails, fingernails, toenails, whatever your nails, and flip on that favorite car theme. T-shirt, hat, or jacket. Um, how you doing, partner? What's going on up there in the mid-Atlantic?

SPEAKER_01: 0:40

Uh, not too much. We're feels like summer getting there, eating degrees. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 0:45

Might not and afford a panhandle. Um uh uh uh summer is about to come with a huge cudgel over the head with humidity and warmth. Speaking of yeah, I was just going to welcome back listeners all over the world. We love looking at the reporting and analytics. Welcome back to people in countries such as Israel, Finland, specifically. All right, let's see if I don't butcher this. Turku in southwest Finland. Welcome back. We had three return visits, return listeners, we should say, uh from your state of New Jersey, Doug. Northfield, egg uh harbor, uh, and Tuckerton. Have you heard of those three?

SPEAKER_01: 1:27

I know you lived in Jersey. I wonder if my friend Tim, who was um I think he was our second I remember episode. Um he he lives in Minnesota, but uh he has family in New Jersey from New Jersey. He he might be uh and I know he's in New Jersey now, might be him.

SPEAKER_02: 1:46

Yeah, I love seeing listeners uh pop up where I I can I can triangulate and have a good idea of who that is. Welcome back to listeners uh uh north of the border in Ontario, St. Catharine, and in Quebec, Montreal. Gulf Breeze, Florida, where I'm located. Who's listening? Probably my kids are um Navarre, welcome. And back up north, Syracuse. Syracuse, New York. Welcome. Great to have you back. I had one question here before we get into the show. Um did you see anything interesting on the road today, Doug?

SPEAKER_01: 2:21

Well, not anything. Or this week today, but over the last couple days, and they're popping up more and more. Uh the Volkswagen ID Buzz.

SPEAKER_02: 2:30

Yeah, yeah, yep. I saw one too. Really sharp looking. Yep. Uh love the uh, I think it was white over yellow, something like that.

SPEAKER_01: 2:39

Yeah, they I think they're all two-tone. I mean, you know, Volkswagen is brilliant at the nostalgia, right? Design. Yeah. Yeah. Uh uh the the new Beatle, right, for example, which uh sold like hot cakes initially. Um this is different, right? Because it's electric. I think I think it's it it doesn't have the range, right? I think it's it's uh hopefully more, you know, it's probably more of a fad car uh than anything. We shall see and like everything, you'll see somebody who bought one and then they'll be selling it quickly, just just like a sports, just like a small sports car, like a Miata, right? They've got it. They're like I don't really use it that much. Oh, it's too loud. In this case, maybe the range, um certainly uh availability charging um is something to get used to when you have an electric car.

SPEAKER_02: 3:31

Yeah, perfect segue. Because I was thinking uh I I was gonna ask you this. When when you and when you look for cars, where do you look? Do you go? You know, it used to be the classifieds, used to be uh, or you drive by the lot, but there's so many ways to get that content today. Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist. How do you if if you're looking for a car for the kids yourself, where do you go? What do you do?

SPEAKER_01: 3:56

I would say Facebook, Facebook Marketplace. And then there is a Facebook forum for every car. Yeah, multiple manufacturer. Like I recently got on the Miata one, probably because of uh a couple of our uh past guests, John from Mazda, as well as uh Nigel. And uh now I just see Miatas popping up left and right. And then, of course, they're popping up on Facebook Marketplace. I'm like, hmm, what did I big big brother eavesdropping?

SPEAKER_02: 4:26

Yeah, we were in one of my cars. My son said uh uh he was asked, I can't remember, he was asking me something about what do you do this problem or that problem? And I told him about the the many online communities, just online. You go to this website.org and they have it's just a discussion board. Any question you have, you can just search up there and see what see what other people have come up with.

SPEAKER_01: 4:47

So you can become a YouTube certified mechanic.

SPEAKER_02: 4:51

We've had we we've had several. Still waiting for my plaque, my certificate to come in the mail. But yeah, all looking forward to that. So carslove.com, carslove.com, reach out to us, uh Christian at carslove.com, Doug at carslove.com. And so what's been happening with with the website? I know the car cell continues to fill up. And for those not in the low carslove, not in the know, carslove.com slash photos. So send us photos of your automobiles if you had those interesting first ones, you and your family, because this show is it it's about family, if it's at all about cars. So we've been we've been I I have some snapshots to send you of of my first. So are are you still getting them? How's that working?

SPEAKER_01: 5:37

Yeah, yeah. I'm uh between car spotting and then some of our guests who've been able to maintain their pictures, right? They still have it. Maybe they still own the car if it's uh some of our guests. And um, you know, we should also mention, because our our guests uh mention it, we have an events page. Um I would love to for the events page to be maybe someday us going to an event, but there you go. Our our events pages typically who we're gonna be interviewing on what day and approximate time. Yeah, good. Good stuff, good stuff. So it's it's fun to do. It's it's nice to hear that people actually look at it. So uh makes for a good time.

SPEAKER_02: 6:17

Good work. Flash events. Yep, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into the website. Doug's always busy, so hey, thank you for that. And now I'm gonna toss it over to you and ask you how did today's guest, very excited about today's guest, bye-bye. How did he find his way into your virtual garage?

SPEAKER_01: 6:36

Yeah. Uh as you've been hearing more and more, just due to the podcast getting out there and people hearing about it, um, through his PR rep, they found us on uh quoted qwed.com and reached out. And we've actually had gotten some fantastic guests. Um and our guest today is not going to disappoint.

SPEAKER_02: 7:00

None more fantasticer than Adam with the Extreme Experience. Adam, how are you this afternoon? I'm Fantastic, apparently. I'm doing good, boys. Good to see you. You're the best. You're the best. Yeah, so tell us a little bit uh what you do. You have a company called The Extreme Experience. Tell a little bit uh tell us a little bit about it, and then uh what got you into that into that enterprise?

SPEAKER_00: 7:27

Well, I suppose that I'm here simply to fulfill Doug's need of putting an event on the events page, and I happen to know well. Yeah. Yeah, I I I'm a selfless guy. Could I find a way to host 50 to 60 automotive themed events nationwide and make sure that people had stuff to do? And uh that's what we do. Um, but long story really, really short, uh almost 15 years ago, I was in the luxury concierge business helping connect people with rentals of fancy cars and boats and things like that. But man oh man, everyone called and said, I just want a cool extreme experience. Can you be the guy to help put that together for me? And I said, Who would I be to say no? And so I did. And 15 years later, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of drivers later, here we are.

SPEAKER_02: 8:17

Yeah, and if you want to put a smile on your face, everybody, if the the the nearest device, uh plop in the extreme experience.com. The extreme experience.com where you can rent one of many. It looks like it's it's a dozen or two supercars. It's this whole tour, as Adam was saying, that kind of go goes around the country. And you you can drive these cars on a racetrack. So so what was the you you told us about the aha moment that led to that? Was it hard to put together a fleet of supercars? That's such a maniac sentence. But how long did it take you from inception to making that happen? And did you always know that you were gonna be uh co-located, kind of kind of making this happen on a on a track, on a real deal racetrack?

SPEAKER_00: 9:10

It happened really fast. Um I was no different growing up than most car guys and girls. I had the poster on my wall, I was in the backseat of my parents' car, I was spinning around to see what just drove past us. Didn't matter if it was a Saab or a Honda Odyssey or a Ferrari 360, whatever it was. I was noticing it. But, you know, then I grew up and I got distracted. I went to college and I did other things. And ultimately, after college, a few years later, I just happened upon the car business and it reignited this excitement. But by that time, I was a lifestyle guy who met the car industry. And so I figured, you know, I wasn't a race car driver. I wasn't wrenching on the cars myself, but instead, how could I provide this lifestyle that I wanted to experience? And then how could I share it with other people? And so, in less than a year and a half, I went from working for this concierge company to listening to our customers who really wanted to experience automobiles to putting together our first racetrack driving experience. And no, Christian, I didn't own a single one of these cars. I knocked on the doors of every car dealership, every owner of a supercar in Chicago, and I said, I need to borrow your car. I'm putting this cool thing together. And I got enough people to allow me to borrow their cars, and we hosted our first event.

SPEAKER_02: 10:23

Uh lovely. Now, what was the first one like? What was the first one that you put together? Was it a comedy of heirs? Was it a Swiss watch from the from the word go?

SPEAKER_00: 10:32

No, I mean a comedy would probably still be giving it some credit. I had no, you know, I had no experience. I did not put uh two uh two moments of thought into the fact that we should probably have helmets on, we should probably have walkie-talkies in the car. We just put people in supercars and we said, go that way. We'll see you when you come back around. And most people never made it all the way back around. They spun themselves off, they ended up in the sand. You know, it was what it was. It was a comedy of learning, I guess, I suppose. And we learned really quickly because hurting people is definitely not my vocabulary, but uh, you know, we learned it was an industry that be that realistically did not exist. And so we were creating our industry one driver at a time. And quite honestly, I still take that outlook today, which is what keeps us growing.

SPEAKER_02: 11:18

For sure. And the enthusiasm, the enthusiasm must have been there from the word go with the people that showed up. Um, and and and so how did you how did you get the word of mouth out? Was there buzz very quickly? Because yeah, like you say, it's a super exciting thing. Great gift, great gift to give. Um so what was that?

SPEAKER_00: 11:40

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We uh we used local Chicago channels in the beginning. Uh Groupon was big here and getting started in Chicago right down the street when we founded this. Uh, we jumped on the internet and you could start buying Facebook ads. You know, 15 years ago, this stuff was kind of in an infancy stage. So we leveraged all these new digital technologies to say, hey, you want to test drive a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Porsche, whatever it was, uh 150 bucks. That's all we charged in the beginning. So you gotta you gotta imagine coming from a world where I was initially marketing the rental of a Ferrari for$2,000 a day, minimum of three days, I excluded 99.9% of the population. But for 100 bucks, oh man, our first day, thousands of people showed up. And I that was the light bulb moment right then and there. I was like, I don't know if 150 bucks is enough to uh maintain a supercar and do advertising, run a company and still make money, but that's okay. I have enough people here where uh if I figure this out, I've got a business and and figured it out.

SPEAKER_02: 12:37

Yeah, in your the the listener's gonna ask, okay, where is this? How do I find out when they're coming to me? Well, it's a it's a sort of a uh a circus where they just load up the trucks and they go to the next city. Uh three of them, you have uh three working in parallel that can go all the way around the country west, midwest, south, northeast. So uh whether you're in uh Phoenix, Arizona, Denver, Colorado, Salt Lake City, Utah. Uh now, New Orleans is the closest one to me, but they've already done that this year, okay? Uh South, Northeast, New Jersey. Okay. Uh, let's see, what do I have up here? New York City, Philly, Michigan. So every it truly comes all the way around the country. I gotta ask, what is the most popular car that is rented, or what is the one that really seems to move people the most?

SPEAKER_00: 13:32

Ooh, that's a good question because it might be a different answer. I think the most popular car to, and you hit it on the head. This is a fantastic gift. This is the bucket list experience. So a lot of people sign up for the Italian Prima Donna's. When once they check the Ferrari and Lamborghini off, which obviously tied for number one, the Ferrari may edge out the Lamborghini just a little bit. Um, they they release new models, they get a little bit more press. Uh, so Ferrari one, Lamborghini two, then there's a big gap to numbers three, four, and five. But the car that moves people the most when they get out of it, uh, and I'm gonna I'll take my hat off to them right now, is the new C8. Man, people get out of that car and they are blown away. We had this, we generally ran a Corvette generation uh in our in our fleet for a year or two before they said, Well, my neighbor's got one now, the C7, the C6, so I don't need this car. We put the C8 in our fleet, it lasted five years, and we only switched it because the Z06 came out and we said, Well, if you guys have been driving that for five years, you deserve to drive this. But that car, hands down, is people's favorite car.

SPEAKER_01: 14:37

That and that was gonna be my guess. I was holding out because yeah, that car for the money, right? You can't need it.

SPEAKER_00: 14:45

No, it's mind-boggling. And now with the ZR1, that's getting all the press where they just released a couple of days ago. Holy smokes! Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 14:52

So with these cars, and I know Doug wants to hop in here. Is it hard to keep a fleet of cars like these running because being run costs? They're being handled a lot, okay, by people that aren't used to handling them. Uh, these are temperamental cars to begin with. Is it hard to keep them mechanically sound? Do you have people that sort of travel with the show? You have people on contract when you go. If it's a trade secret, we can move on to the next question.

SPEAKER_00: 15:20

Uh, here's the trade secret: everything that's mechanical can and will break. And so it's just a matter of how often it breaks and how prepared we are. In the beginning, we traveled with a pickup truck, a few wrenches, and a spare tire, hoping that you know we would we could MacGyver that situation. But 15 years later, I've got 20 mechanics, I've got two semi-trucks, and they travel with the tour everywhere they go. And we're we're doing a fantastic amount of work on these cars in pit lane, just like a race team, to keep them going and to keep you safe.

SPEAKER_02: 15:50

Top notch. Love that answer. What do you think, Doug? Are we ready to go back in time, or do you want to still still throw out some questions about this incredible business, the extreme experience?

SPEAKER_01: 16:00

So many questions. Uh, I did want to ask, so 13 years later, I I think I have that right. Um, do you have do you have some numbers, uh, metrics on how many, how many smiles, how many cars, how many cars you've gone through? Just curious if you can share that with us and the listeners.

SPEAKER_00: 16:19

That is a good question. We'll start with the smiles because that was really important to us. Yes. Because just like myself, you know, I'm our our ideal customer. And so smile number one was the first time I ever saw a Lamborghini pull up in, you know, I was in Chicago and it came over a bridge and it was theatrical, and that was this is awesome number one. Um, so now in our warehouse, we actually raise a banner every single year with the number of people that rode or drove in a supercar thanks to the extreme experience, because we're really proud of the fact that we're changing lives. And uh we started our first year in 2012 with 8,000 people driving supercars, enough to create a business. Yeah. Last year, uh, 88,000 people drove supercars because of Extreme Experience or rode in supercars. And so if you combine all those up over the last 13 years, the number is uh just shy of a half a million people have been in supercars thanks to uh to what we do. Now, how many supercars did that take? Well, we've got about 70 cars in our fleet today, between ride-along cars, driver cars, and as you so astutely uh mentioned, cars that are on a lift somewhere getting some type of repair done. So that's what it takes to keep the program running. Uh, as far as how many we've gone through in the past, I wish I had a more accurate answer, but I know that we flip about 20, 25% of the fleet per year. So uh at one point I did the VinWiki show with Ed Bully and he asked a similar question. I think back then it was 200. So, man, oh man, I bet we're we're well over three, 350 supercars that uh I've owned and that I've loved in my day. Yeah.

unknown: 17:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 17:57

Good stuff. Yeah, good stuff. Well, I think we have to we have to climb in the way back. We have to climb in the way back, go 88 miles per hour. And let's go back to the beginning. And in when we talk about Adam's first car, uh great answer he's had. We've never had this answer before. And he says, we always ask people, well, what was your first car? And Adam says, Well, it it feels like he's had three experiences or births of this experience. And Adam, what did you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00: 18:27

Well, I mean, there was the first car when you're 15, 16 years old. The first time that I ever made tires squeal, because you just gotta feel that, right? You know, they always say that racing, uh, the racing was invented the the moment the second car came off the production line. And that's kind of how you feel as a teenager. You know, you've got to get that out of your system. Like I am now in control. So there was that first car. There, of course, was the first car that I bought with my own money, and then there was my first supercar, which really opened up this whole new chapter. But each of those, you know, cars come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. And so they each had their own reason and their own season. Um, that's that's how I had to answer the question.

SPEAKER_02: 19:10

Good deal. I have to write that down.

SPEAKER_01: 19:12

The reason, season or a lifetime. Yeah, yeah. It's making me re-evaluate my first cars as well.

SPEAKER_02: 19:21

Yeah, it's a yeah, it's a good point, you know. What so uh there's the first one you touched, the first you bought with your own money. Um so let's see, the Pontiac Grand Prix, the Jetta, and then and then the supercars he has he has right now. What do you think, Doug? Where do we go with those answers?

SPEAKER_01: 19:37

Yeah, well, let's start with the uh Grand Prix. Um, and as we talked in the pre-show, I think my dad owned one of those when I was probably in my 20s, early 20s. And Trish and I think I took you for a crazy ride in it. It was a pretty cool car for the time when it first came out. But uh, Adam, what do you what do you remember about that car?

SPEAKER_00: 19:57

I remember I'm I've always been big on the aesthetic. That that to me was something that mattered. And so this it was it was white, it was a 95 grand pre. I'll never forget the tail lights. They kind of had that waffle pattern tail lights with the string of lights. Perfect way to put it, yes. Right? It went across the trunk, and then in the front, they had the slim headlights, and it just kind of felt like a race car and it felt sporty. At the time, I wasn't familiar with the composition of the car, you know, the plastic versus the steel. We weren't doing aluminum and stuff, and carbon fiber was a long, long dream away. But uh, you know, a Pontiac felt racy, it felt sporty. And when I was driving that car, I felt like people were looking at me. I will say this so that I don't forget to say it. I think it's important that no matter what your car is, whether it's your first car that you touched, your first car that you bought, or the car that you aspired to own one day, it should always be a car that when you get out of it, you turn around and look at it one more time, just because you want to see your car. And uh for, you know, I'm 40 now, and so for the last 25, 26 years, I've been turning around looking at my car. And so I guess I'll give my dad a little credit for he chose the Pontiac Grand Prix. I didn't get to choose that one. That's what he what what he gave me to drive, and ultimately it became mine in college. So that uh, you know, a lot of good memories about how you learn to feel about a car that way.

SPEAKER_01: 21:17

Yeah, love that. Love that. Yep. And that translates well into your day job, right? Just the feeling of the cars, right? And you know, you're you're seeing the the super, you're seeing the smiles of your customers, right? And that just yeah, all ties it back together, right? From your first smile at that car.

SPEAKER_02: 21:39

Yeah. It's also kind of a good life lesson for the people in your life, the the anything that you own, you know. Does this thing make you happy? Um, does it lighten your soul? Or for some reason, any reason, does it bring you dread, hassle, or do you have some sort of negative association with it? You know, you're not living someone else's dream in your life. You have to optimize your own best life. I I don't know, it's just r random thought, but something you just said really, really struck me, Adam. Good stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 22:09

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what I'll never forget my mom telling me how she was, I think she had a Thunderbird in college, and then she got married, had kids, sold the car, and was driving a minivan when I learned all of this. And I said, Mom, you know, going back to what you just said, Christian, do you have regrets about that? Why don't you have a sports car? And I think that's probably when she went and bought that that Audi uh A6. There you go. You know, I created this lifestyle where I never want to feel regret about passing something up. Life is a journey, and you spend a lot of time in your car, so you better maximize that journey.

SPEAKER_01: 22:41

I agree. Agreed. And take advantage of the car being able to do what you can do with what it's capable of on a safe track, right? Safe environment. Oh, yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 22:53

I I have I have hyperbolized that example for sure. But daily driving, you know. Some people say a car just gets you from A to B. And I say, no, it does more than that. Yep, yep. Agreed.

SPEAKER_02: 23:04

And or on a racetrack, like you do, the car gets you from A to A because you end up back at the same point all the time.

SPEAKER_00: 23:10

Good stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 23:14

Yep. And there's there's definitely a um, let's see, we had uh is it Nigel Tunacliff from uh he does a uh coastline driving academy out out west, so teaching young young uh young drivers how to drive and real really great guy, but like just how important that is, and letting respecting the power of a vehicle, right, and what it's capable of. I the one negative I see of the C8 is because it's so affordable and so available, people get it, and they are just they shouldn't be on the road in that car. Or they should get some track experience and learn what the car is capable of beforehand.

SPEAKER_00: 24:01

Yeah, no argument there, and there's plenty of great schools out there, right? Learn to drive programs, and and a lot of times when you buy the Mustang or the Corvette, they'll they'll gear you towards something. But for whatever reason, this Corvette, just going back to it again, yeah. I got pro drivers who try to turn it loose, who try to get themselves in trouble. And man, the engineers are nailing it because that car continues to save us day in and day out. But either way, that's no excuse to go get to go learn how to drive.

SPEAKER_01: 24:26

Yep, yep, for sure. Yeah, and it's a it's a great endorsement for that car. So um, so you moved on. Your second birth of your car was uh the first car you purchased on your own. Can you tell us about that?

SPEAKER_00: 24:41

This was inspired by my mom. Fine, and you know, getting back to that. So when we send this out to the world, she'll be happy to listen to it. And she got she got that 01 Audi A6, and I got behind the wheel of that. And then you had a little luxury, plus you had the power, plus you had the engineering. And that's when I felt the car. This is a this is what you should drive. This is how you should feel when you drive. And so uh it was a foregone conclusion that when I finally graduated from school and had some money, I bought the Jeddah. I bought the little uh the little little brother, uh, little sister of the uh the Audi. And I got a I got a place in Chicago and I just ripped that thing around and I took full advantage of it. And at the time, you know, that's before I even got into the supercar business, obviously. And so I didn't know as much about the motor and the power and the displacement and all the, you know, I was just do I feel it or do I not feel it? It was a gut, it was a gut feeling, and that car gave me that gut feeling. And so my friends still give me grief today about the Wolfsburger because I still talk about it because it was, you know, who knows where I'd be today if I wasn't doing what I'm doing, how that ladder would have looked from Wolfsburger to what to what. But uh that was that was the one and only car that I bought until you know the shipment till it got crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 25:55

Yeah, yeah. So um, and in that, your first supercar or supercars post post uh the Wolfsburger. What were they?

SPEAKER_00: 26:08

Well, and so from uh after I transitioned from there, um I got into the the rental business, and we had a uh an 08 Lamborghini Gaiardo, we had an 07 straight piped F430 coupe, um, and we had a uh a Bentley with the W12, that Continental uh GTC. So suddenly I was driving these cars and I was like, holy smokes, this is this is crazy, this is a different world. And uh, and that's really what changed my life. Although the first supercar that we ever bought as Extreme Experience, I believe, was a 996 uh 911 turbo. I think that was the first one we ever actually uh we ever bought and put into our fleet. So uh, but either way, those three, four cars really kind of brought me into the world of ultra high performance. And uh I have a lot of fond memories stealing those out of the warehouse and creating young teenage memories, uh, or not teenage, but you know, early 20 memories. Yeah. Those supercars.

SPEAKER_01: 27:10

Yeah, it makes me uh, and you mentioned 996. I just keep thinking of the uh the beginning of uh Gone in 60 Seconds, the reboot movie, where um he goes in and he smashes a window. That's not what you're doing because it's your warehouse, but he steals that brand new 996 out and just goes flying.

SPEAKER_00: 27:32

Yeah, we have uh back in the day, we have plenty of memories. You know, before I could afford car haulers and everything, we had to get these supercars places, and so like like crazy 20-something year olds, we drove them. And so you would just see this line on the highway of 430s and 911s and Gallardos and Audi R8s and Nissan GTRs. We survived, which is the most important part. But man, you that's just that's as good as it gets, just having that. And it and doing it with your friends was such a cool feeling, too. You know, driving a car is great, but sharing that looking over to your side, your left and your right, and seeing other people driving these cars, and then people looking at you, it's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_01: 28:08

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. So, so um, and we we didn't talk about this in the pre-show, but I I like what you answered. When you think about music, what do you like to listen to? And is there a song? Is there a band that you like that kind of defines you and your role?

SPEAKER_00: 28:30

I don't know that well um, I don't know that I have a moment that defines why I chose this band or this song, but I'll but I know that the answer is and always will be ACDC, uh, because it's just something about the way that they play their music and especially their song for those about to rock. Because you sit down in a Ferrari or anything super, you know, you click your your buckle on and you turn it up and for those about to rock, and then you rock. And that's always been my it's always been my supercar music.

SPEAKER_01: 29:01

Yeah, no. And the the reason I like it, a different, slightly different time, but uh the gentleman we had on earlier, one of two gentlemen we had on earlier this week before you, uh Tim Kearns, who's we talked about this in the pre-show, his dad invented the intermittent windshield wiper. So we asked him what his favorite song was, and he was like Steppenwolf, Born to Be Wild, and he had a 1971 Mustang Mach one, and man, what a what a perfect song for that car. Just ACDC as well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 29:35

And then the the the uh oil embargo crisis of the 70s happened, and he switched from that to um to the Pinto, and it, you know, they probably played the Carpenters. That that that might have been his go to there. But anyway, yeah, back to you.

SPEAKER_01: 29:50

Yeah. So um I'm sure everybody wants to know what the owner, uh, founder of uh Extreme Experience drives. Can you can you tell us about that? What's your Daily driver is. Oh, it's a supercar, of course. Yeah, with his children.

SPEAKER_00: 30:04

He's a dad, right? Why not? That was the that was the slippery slope. I think that once I got into the business, there was a certain threshold of car that I was never gonna be below. Yeah, no minigames, no Honda Odyssey.

SPEAKER_02: 30:17

Oh, so it's a lot of pressure for a guy like you, isn't it? Yeah, I didn't I didn't think about that. Oh I think he owns all these cars. What's he gonna pull up in now?

SPEAKER_00: 30:25

I know, right? Now, the good part uh for me, or the excuse I should say, is that I live in the city of Chicago. And so there is really no way to drive a supercar down here, whether it's traffic or whether it's potholes or whether it's seasons. Believe me, I've tried and I've done plenty of pushing a supercar the eight feet back to my garage because I thought it would be a good idea, but just a little bit of snow made it a bad idea. So unfortunately, owning a supercar is just not a thing outside of what we do for work. Um, so I've always been a truck guy. Uh well, I've gotten in trouble for calling them trucks and SUV guys. So uh, but uh so uh Land Rovers and Mercedes Benz have always been my brand. I love the AMG. Uh and so today I drive uh I drive and it's in color uh uniform. I drive a burnt magno copper Mercedes G63. And so it's the Extreme Experience wagon, and you can see it coming.

SPEAKER_01: 31:24

That's uh sorry, Christian, for those who don't know, right? That's the uh I'm gonna get the pronunciation wrong. That's the old uh Galaudo wagon, I'm saying it wrong, that they didn't have in the States till what 90s, early 2000s, and then but people were always importing them, and now they've just become this suit ultra luxury, ultra fast, comfortable, but very capable SUV.

SPEAKER_00: 31:52

Yeah, that's why I called that's why I called it a wagon. Um it uh yeah, I think mine has 571 horsepower. I think it's right in that neighborhood somewhere. Um, and I got the last now that the 580 just came out this year, and it's an electric car, and so the jury's out on that one. But uh I saw I'm still I'm still driving that uh that eight that eight cylinder that burns about three gallons of gas a minute and sounds like a boat, and I wouldn't trade for the world.

SPEAKER_01: 32:23

Yeah, twin twin turbo at that twin turbo v8, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 32:29

Gotta have it. Well, at this point in the show, we typically ask our guests what their dream cars are. And I don't know that makes sense because every dream car you've ever had, I think you've owned and sold. That's the problem, right? You know, you need new dreams or someone else's dreams. What are we gonna do here?

SPEAKER_00: 32:49

Yeah, yeah. It's it is a tough question, but it is it is the number one question, of course, that I get asked. I go to the racetrack, I start talking to my customers, and the first question they ask me, not really, you know, they do like to know what I drive, but they want to know what my favorite supercar is of all times because they're comparing it to something, a memory they have, a model they built, a poster on their wall. And um, my answer really still remains the same, uh, although it's being challenged for almost 15 years. I've been answering that it's been the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Black Series. So if I could snap my fingers and put an SLS Black Series in the garage, yellow black, that would be the card that I would choose. Um, the only thing that I think I would hesitate and consider um these new 9-11 GT3 RS or the GT2s, man, Porsche is just knocking it out of the park, and these things are animals. And so that would be something new that I've never or we throw all that out the window and we go get a Kuntash and we just call it a day because that's the poster I actually had on my wall as a kid.

SPEAKER_02: 33:52

I did too, didn't we?

SPEAKER_01: 33:53

All didn't we all what it what was it? Justification for higher education, right? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 33:59

That was that was one of the that that was like the first meme of all time, was the old Lambert V posting, like like hanging on the wall. We can tie it to the current days. Indeed, indeed. So, yeah, Adam, as we guide the podcast gently to the off-ramp, one last question for you on the way out here is I I just gotta tell maybe it's more of a statement. I can't wait to show up at the extreme experience and drive all these fantastic cars while wearing my, you know, I live in Florida, and all we really wear for foot footwear, even in the dead of winter, is flip-flops. So I cannot wait to show up and wear my flip-flops while while having your cars fly around the track. That's not a problem, is it?

SPEAKER_00: 34:42

We have a whole rack of shoes for people just like you. No, no, no, rack of flip-flops, right? You got a rack of flip dirt. We yeah, we'll call them close-toed flip-flops for you. Just for you. Just for you. We have yeah, we have there's there's what there's 47 lower states plus Florida. And so we're fine. We'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_02: 35:02

Yeah, all right. And so what, so what important? And uh yeah, yeah, I I tend to have tall friends. I don't know why. I have some friends that are not so tall. So uh my six foot two, six foot four, six foot five friend, can they fit in these cars? They can fit in these cars, right? It in in in in uh if you go on the website, there's actually sort of a high guide for the different cars you have. And I think that is just ingenious. You got to check out this site, the extreme experience.com/slash how dash it dash works. So much great information, really rich FAQ section. And they'll just tell you, hey, you you you can um, you know, if you're five foot two, we'll be fine. The helmet that we put on you is two inches, you'll fit in perfectly. So you've got an answer for everything, Adam, and I think it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00: 35:54

Well, we've been having fun for a long enough time that uh I think we've just about figured it out, but then I always learn something new. So I'll never never uh I'll never guarantee I know it all, but we're enjoying the process. And if you got to learn by driving supercars around racetracks, uh sign me up. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 36:12

And and yeah, yeah, we'll would uh tell our listenership checkout. The extreme experience.com. Of course, it's gonna be in the show notes. And hey, Adam, thank you for taking time today. It was uh an extreme pleasure meeting you. We had a blast. Come back anytime.

SPEAKER_00: 36:29

Yeah, I would be happy to, and I expect you guys to meet me at the racetrack and we'll do this again.

SPEAKER_02: 36:34

Next time you're in New Orleans, I will show up with my flip-flops. You have he rolls his eyes, but gave me a thumbs up. What does that mean? You have just heard the high revving, low mileage, late model heard round the world, authoritative podcast on automotive nostalgia. He is Doug Reach Me at Doug at CarsLove.com. I'm Christian, reach me at Christian at carslove.com. And he was Adam with the Extreme Experience. The Extreme Experience.com. Check him out. If you like our podcast, please follow and tell a friend. CarsLoved.com, carslove.com. Also check out our link tree, which is L-I-N-K-T-R.ee slash Cars Loved. There you go. I'm sure we'll see you at the next local car show, showroom, race trip, or concor. We appreciate you taking a laugh with us, and we'll see you next time.