Throttlecast: Episode 10

In this episode of Throttlecast, we sit down with Emran Alborno from Car Tunes Atlanta to talk about the history behind one of the Southeast’s most respected car electronics and customization shops.

Emran shares how Car Tunes Atlanta began in 1978 when founder Richard Graham left his corporate accounting career to start installing eight-track players and speakers in cars—eventually growing into a premier destination for high-end automotive electronics.

He also discusses his own journey from sweeping floors straight out of high school to building a long career in the industry, along with insights into modern car customization, advanced audio systems, and working on vehicles from brands like Porsche, Ferrari, and Lamborghini.

Tune in to hear the evolution of the car audio industry and how Car Tunes Atlanta has stayed ahead for nearly five decades.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Alright guys, welcome back to another episode of Throttlecast. Pleased to have you back. My name is Grant Van Brewer. We're here with Dave Codre, and we've got our good friend Imron Aporta from Cartoons Atlanta here on the pod. And uh thanks so much for coming by, man, and sharing some of your story. And there's some things. I mean, look, I've known you for a long time, but there's some things today that I want to find out like how did this all happen? Like, you know, um, you guys have served the greater Atlanta community and beyond for gosh decades, I guess. And uh, you know, whether it be a custom Porsche or Ferrari or Lamborghini, uh, everything from I mean, we're gonna get into this, but radar systems, audio video, obviously, and like so much more than just that. Like, this is not just a shop to get your your speakers and your amp hooked up, it is so much more than that. So appreciate you coming on the pod. Thanks. Um, I guess we'll get right into it. When did cartoons first start?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

All right, so we're coming up on our 50 years. That's uh we're close. Or it's 1978, is when we started.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Um, founder started it, uh, his name is Richard Grimm. He started in 1978 with a partner. Uh basically, he was kind of an accountant and he was bored with his corporate job. Um, he was actually doing some accounting work for an eight-track company of all companies. He was just selling the guy who was selling eight-tracks, and they needed an installer and they were putting it in, and he's like, Well, we can do that. And uh lo and behold, there comes cartoons. And uh he basically got a building one day. Uh it was on Roswell Road. It's actually where Roomy's Kitchen used to be, um, and is now some other restaurant. Um, but yeah, he opened the store store then. He had a partner there and uh a couple guys, and they were just slinging eight-track players and the speakers, and that was it. They were doing a lot of uh what we call expediter work, which is just basically work for the dealers, um, throwing them in a bunch of cars.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

That's how it started.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

I remember my first time visiting. It was right there at Rousle Road in 285. Yeah. Next to Rus Chris, is that the one you're talking about?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, so that was that's we moved there later, or he moved there later. Okay. Um, but he was not even a half a mile north of that for years. And then he moved down to that location.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

How many eight tracks he installed? Right. Tons. Tons of eight tracks. Tons of eight tracks.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

He just remembers how heavy they are, and he was he was going into I actually asked him a couple questions today, and I was like, So you remember all those times? He goes, Man, they were heavy. Yeah, and they were heavy. And yeah, he was doing them.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

He was having fun.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Yeah. And what did the Atlanta car scene look like then compared to now? I mean, it's hard to imagine. That kind of predates me a little bit, but yeah, I mean, me too.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

So I mean, he he was uh asked him that very question actually earlier, and uh, he says he said, Man, it was the late 70s. Uh we were coming out of you know all the cool 60s cars with the big CI engines, and you know, uh they were kind of toning things down and everything was getting boxier and bigger and whatever. But um, you know, the stereos were important. Yeah, you know, everybody wanted some tunes, um, and they weren't the cheapest things in the world to have.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

Yeah. And when did when did you personally get involved with cartoons?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

So I started there in 2005. I've been there a little over 20 years. Um, I was straight out of high school. Uh so I I graduated in May uh 5th, and on May 15th, I had my job at cartoons. Um, I didn't know anything. My dad was in the car scene. He knew my partner now, Dak. Uh, and he's like, hey, my lazy son needs a job. Uh I don't know what he needs to do. Uh, and just just he needs to come work, do something. What do you got? And he goes, Well, I mean, I guess you could sweep some floors. And that's what I did. I started out sweeping floors and driving around and picking up cars and kind of being the valet service. And that was it. That was the start.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

That was the start. And never did I think that 20 years later, and you know, a couple degrees and kids and wife and all those things and cars that I'd still be here, and but I love it. There's nothing I would rather do than this.

SPEAKER_03 3:57

It's really interesting because I think all of us in this space we've we've had our humble beginnings. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Um for me, it was like selling Toyotas, right, you know, the first year in business. Oh six, so kind of the same time frame. There you go. But then, you know, getting fired from that job because I was a terrible salesperson. And then ultimately, you know, working at Toyotas. You're good at the other one. Toyota Enigma was hard. Um, so what kind of cars were you guys working on in those early days, 05, 06?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Man, we we were working on Ferraris back then. Really? A lot of Ferraris, a lot of Porsches. Uh, I mean, the local celebrities in Atlanta still come through cartoons. Uh, I mean, it was it was pretty amazing. It was eye-opening. Um, that that store catered to those clients, and everybody kind of knew that cartoons was around, and uh, we are the guys. So definitely it's it's cool coming into a turnkey solution where everything's already kind of set up, um, and you just have to help it grow. Yeah, and uh in my case, that wasn't my intention initially. I was there just to be a fly on the wall kind of thing and see how it grows. And uh then they kind of figured out, wait a minute, this kid might actually be able to help us. Um, and they put some trust in me. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

And so back then, like I we didn't have all the advanced like laser radar systems like we have today. Was it predominantly kind of audio related for the most part?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yeah, pretty much all audio. Yeah, I mean, there's really not much we were doing. Um, you know, cartoons has evolved and grown so much over the years. So, like we started with eight tracks, and then there was a period in time where we were really into cell phones, and like I'm talking about the big massive breeze. Installing the brick yes, like those huge things going into the cars, and that's where we had uh, I mean, it that was our bread and butter for years and years and years before I was even involved. Um, and then that kind of fell off once the mobile phones hit. Yeah, you know, you're like, okay, we don't need a big car phone anymore.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Just picture like Miami Vice, like a Testeros, a big phone in it. Because they had like the wired cords. All that.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Yeah. I mean, we were we were cell phone mobile phone dealers, like we were the big one of the bigger ones in Atlanta. That's amazing. Um, we were doing all the car dealers over that over that time, and I mean installing these 50-pound boxes in cars.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

Wow, it's amazing to see technology evolutionize over time and into what it is that's the tree changing. I mean, did you see cartoons becoming what it is today? Like, I mean, you guys do so much, and obviously we'll get into it, but like from that spot in 06, doing the cell phones, a little bit of audio to just really any kind of solution you can think of now as it relates to a car, did you?

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, I mean, basically anything that has wires involved or anything that can be installed on a vehicle, we will do and we can do. Um, and and we've more so evolved more recently into like some of this performance stuff too, because I mean we figured out that hey guys, we have some of the smartest minds on the planet here. Absolutely. Uh these guys can figure out some of the most complicated systems there are. Uh, we can bolt some things on too.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

And um, I mean, in in the reality of things, uh they they we see some of these installs that are getting done, and not to knock any shops out there, but there are plenty of shops that do incredible work. Um, but we see the wiring, and that's where a lot of them are lacking. Oh, and they would come to us, we would fix it and be like, well, wait a minute.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Yeah. Okay, let's let's see if we can do this too. I mean, just from my experience, because I've sent you countless vehicles over the years, Lamborghini, Porsche, you name it. But I mean, everything is yeah, everything is like a factory install, pretty much. I mean, it looks like it came that way from the OE. Sometimes some of the manufacturers, it's an improvement. Right. Let's be honest. Right. Um hats off to you there.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Thank you. Uh when you when you went from uh you know you're starting there, what's the first thing they trusted you with? You remember like what's the first thing you're like, hey, I this is pretty exciting I get to actually do this?

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yeah, I mean, uh, we were so antiquated that we were still handwriting invoices back then. Wow. And it was just, hey, look, I I know how a computer works. And it's the simple things at first, and then you just kind of escalate and go, look, we've got systems and point of sales, and uh you know, we can actually type things in into emails now. Oh, wow, look at website. You know, it's just the small things that you just take in the uh take it you don't care for nowadays, it's just all automatic. Yeah, social media, for example. I mean, that was non-existent back then, and and all that just kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

When did you set up the first social media account?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Uh oh six. Oh, so that's where it was like, hey, I'm on Facebook, I'm a cool college kid. Let's make a cartoons one. And it was like right when it opened up to the public, you know. So yeah. We've had a Facebook account for a while. And I think it was at the time, like you still had to have a first and a last name, so I think it was Cartoons first name, Atlanta. Atlanta's second name. And so yeah, we've we've had that account for a little while.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

That's like right after you didn't have to be a college student anymore. Right, exactly. Right?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Exactly. Yeah, I was like, oh, look, I got this Facebook thing that's for my college, and I was at the time I was going to Kennesaw State, and uh yeah, I'm like, oh wait, kids like cars.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Maybe we should make a social media account for it. And yeah, just pretending to be a college student named cartoons. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Um looking back at the early days of cartoons, what are some of the biggest challenges that you you guys have had in business? I mean, obviously you guys are smooth sailing. I mean, you have your challenges that come up, but like, you know, when you're I mean, has there ever been a time you've been looking to make payroll or like you've got something big that blew up that you overcome? Anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yeah, I mean, Y2K was was a big hit for the company. Uh I mean, everything was tough back then. The the real estate hit in 08 and all that stuff, you know, people aren't buying what we're selling. Yeah, they're more so trying to make ends meet. And everything that we sell is uh not something that you actually need. Uh we are we're fulfilling a want.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

And we know we're fulfilling a want. So that dollar is always the last dollar that gets spent.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Um, so those eras, yeah, that was tougher. Um just trying to make payroll per se back then it was tough. And I wasn't involved in those decisions back then. Um I was lucky enough to where we got past that hill um and then started getting into more of the management role. And luckily we were fairly smooth at that point, but we've obviously seen a couple challenges here and there.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Yeah. And what was what was the time where you got like a big role? When was that?

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Um so right around 2010, 2011. Um I I officially started owning the company in 2015. Um, but the management role came around 2010, 2011 when they actually figured that they could use me for more than just sweeping floors. Um and uh I've I've just kind of stuck around in that role ever since. Um so I still handle most of the operations at the store, and we've got a ridiculously good team at the store. Um we've got 25 guys, uh, many of them have been with us for 10 years plus. Oh yeah. Yeah. You know, and uh that's one of the things I pride myself on is when you get to cartoons, you stay at cartoons. You know, you are truly a family member. And uh we don't operate our company like most other companies. There's we're very laissez-faire, we're like really hands off, but you know, also not full micromanagement, more so like, hey, look, mess up, it's not the end of the world, we'll figure it all out. Yeah, and and you keep the company going. Yeah, not yelling at everybody every day. I I I don't, we're not tyrants and we're not trying to run our company like tyrants.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Yeah, yeah. If you yell at everyone all the time, then they just get afraid to bring anything up. Exactly. And you start covering things up and quality goes down, it's like right.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Everything follows with it. You you you leave the company with integrity and the rest kind of falls in place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

And every challenge has a solution.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

That's what you have to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

At the end of the day, they're just cars.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

You know, yes, they're very cool, yes, they're incredible, yes, we care about them, and we we respect them because they are yours. I mean, they are your cars, but uh they are cars, they can do things.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

What's the worst thing you've seen open one of these things up? Uh where one of your guys comes to you and is like, hey, we got this one.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Oh, we've got some pretty I mean, just unkempt individuals walking in with just nasty stuff in their cars. It's like clean it out a little? Just a little. I mean, just a little. Like, you don't have to be full on living in it. And I mean, to the point where it's like, are we homeless? And we're both bringing we're bringing it in for a stereo. Okay, maybe some different decisions need to be made in your life. And I'm still taking your dollar. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm absolutely taking their money. Yeah. Um, but yeah, that's some of the stuff we see.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yeah, uh luckily the there's been some questionable personal items left in vehicles. I'm sure we're like, oh hey.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah, absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

We'll go unnamed, we'll go unnamed with that.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah, Grant, what have you brought in your cars?

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Well, I mean, you've worked on all of them, so you can you can see.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

Um, so you guys were trusted to work on Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsche's, Rolls-Royce. Um, was there one time that maybe a car rolled through that you thought was gonna be a big job that just turned out to be an expensive problem?

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Ooh. That's a great question. Um, yes, uh, there's a couple cars that that have turned out that way, and they just basically they're snowball effect cars, yeah. They just turn into, oh, this is it's just every other phone call is well, we can do this, but it's gonna cost this. And luckily, we haven't had any major catastrophes. It's just more so that uh you get a lot of scope creep in some of these bigger builds. Um it's exactly the same world in real estate. You build a house, uh, it's six, seven, eight hundred thousand or whatever, and then oh, but I want this, and oh, but I want that, and no, but I don't want this, and then all of a sudden you've got a two million dollar house, and your initial plan was a million. Yeah, um, it's exact same thing with what we do. It's yeah, sure. Starts with four speakers and an amplifier, and it turns into, hey, you've just reworked every single door and every single panel, and all of a sudden it's 90,000 and $100,000 build, and how did we get here? Um, and uh unfortunately, um the power of addition still works in Carl. Yeah, that's right, yeah. So when you're adding and building these projects, unfortunately, the numbers I'm giving you add. They do add. Yeah, it's not like uh oh, it's 50% off this because we're doing no, they do stack. Yeah, and uh it's uh it happens, and but it's still fun.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

I don't know if this was one of the biggest bills, but one of the bills that really stuck out to me, and you know, I'm a big car audio guy, haven't really implemented a system in most recent times, but I can always appreciate it. But you guys did like, what was it, an M6 or an M8 or something like that with just a crazy system in it? Can you cover that real quick? I don't have it in my notes, but I I just remembered that.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

So uh there is a legendary system back in the day made by Alpine called F1 status. And I mean it's just the coolest name. It's F1, right? It's related to the the the whole F1 thing, um, which actually technically wasn't related to F1, but it's the they called it. But anyway, long story short, it came back um back in 20, I think 2021 now. Um Alpine relaunched it and they were like, it's the new F1 status speakers and sound system. We're gonna build 25 for the world. Um they flew us out to Vegas, we checked it out, it was super cool. And basically, it was a whole system all packaged up in one bundle before installation or anything was concerned, and it was sixty thousand dollars. Eight speakers, two subwoofers, a DSP, um, which is basically their fancy way of showing a head unit, um, and uh a special audio receiver, all this fun stuff.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

And they were packaged really elaborately too, weren't they? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

I mean, it's a it's an unboxing ceremony, there's a whole process. And we have a great client who basically uh my partner Dak uh pitched it to, and he was like, I'm in, I gotta have it. Like that that's that's it. And I I mean I was still in Vegas and we're looking at the system and he's like, yep, that I'm I'm sold, I'm done. Just can I bring it tomorrow? Yeah, it did bring it up. You know, can I bring it tomorrow? Right. And we're like, okay, let's let's let's do it. And uh that build turned out to be one of the most impressive builds we've ever done. Oh bad. Um we had Alpine fly out from Japan. Uh they came and checked out the system, they helped us tune it, um, they had laptops and all kinds of software involved. We were rebuilding the entire door, the speakers, the back, the front, everything on this car. Um, and then we ended up doing some cool performance stuff to it. So it's got an Akropovich exhaust, it's got a C L PPF look, a carbon hood, um G-power stuff. I mean, everything that you could pretty much put on this M8 uh was done.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Oh, it's an M8.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, and it's and it was just an amazing looking and sounding car.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

Um it was uh it wasn't meant to be super loud. It was more so like you get in there and you truly feel like you're in a concert experience uh at any given point in time, and you can throw any kind of music at it. It's just incredible. Um but the amount of man hours that went into that build, uh you want to talk about scope creep, and that was uh mean a metric ton of just tons and tons of man hours, just trying to get it 100% right.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Did they give you any guidance on like how much time it even would be expected to take if they're only got 25 of them ever made?

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Uh I'd love to say they did. Um let's just say that they may not have made us completely aware of all of them. Um but uh in hindsight, it was definitely one of the coolest things that we've put under our belts to say that we did it. And uh all 25 I don't think were actually sold in the end. I think they ended up selling 10 of them and then keeping 15 in-house. Um I don't know why they did that, or I if they kept them back and they didn't have the demand, they would think, but uh, even still, F1 status still is a legend. Um that remained a legend for years and years and years. Everybody wanted it, it was in all the videos, it was in all the music videos with the big uh Alpine head units with the green buttons on them. Yeah, I mean it was it was cool. Yeah and uh yeah, it it's we did a car. We did a car with the F1 status, and we're probably I think there was only three shops in the country that did them. Um it was us and then Alpine themselves, Alpine America themselves, and then a shop out of California, and I believe he bought it for his personal view. Um so we're pretty excited to say that we have like one of the actual true builds that like was a client that was nice enough to allow us to modify and do the car.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Uh one of our favorite clients to deal with by far. He just very excited about audio.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Yeah, this is this industry is all about relationships, as you know. Was there a time uh where a key relationship came up, whether it be let's say a dealership that really started to move the needle even more for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, um we had a great relationship with uh one of the finance directors for the Hennessy group, and uh he connected us with the entire uh dealership network. And um our bread and butter product for the store is laser and radar protection by Escort, uh our radar partners. Um we have some other radar partners as well that also help us. So we carry a couple brands AL Priority, Unit N Escort, all those are in-house. Um and uh after we made that connection and showed the value of these products, uh it helped us kind of skyrocket into another dimension of radar protection. Um to where we were already, if not escort's largest or second largest dealer, uh it propelled us to be we are truly escort's largest uh largest uh dealer in the world. Um there is nobody that touches us. The closest group to us owns 40 stores and they do half the business we do with that. Incredible, yeah. Yeah, and we're on one location.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Ballpark, how many what's the record in one month of these systems that you've maybe done?

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Uh we record in a month is about 80. That's insane. Yeah, about 80 systems. Just even getting them in the door and installing them and getting out working at one shop too. Yeah, the logistics of that was was difficult, and then trying to get the team to where they knew how to install these things efficiently. Um is I mean, took tons of training from our our shop.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

And every car is different, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Every car is a little different. Um, and that's the that's the other thing that we kind of pride ourselves on, right? Is you know, when you go to the Ford store, they know how to work on Fords. When you go to the Chevy store, they know how to work on Chevies. When you come to Cartoons, we gotta know the Porsche's, the Ferraris, the Lambos, the Astons, the Fords, the Chevies, the every single make of every single model. And the best part about it is we still get phone calls from dealerships, uh services, service advisors, and service and technicians for that matter, going, Hey, how'd you uh how'd you take this apart? It's not in the book. And we're like, well, this is how. And the guys have through trials and tribulations and just good old-fashioned trial and error have learned how to do it.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Is it more technique or more tools?

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Uh a little bit of both, yeah, but mostly technique. There's a whole lot of finesse, and it's a whole lot of finesse that I do not have. Um the the techs that we have are, I mean, got sense. We've got some of the smartest, smartest guys in the planet down there.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

And I can tell you from experience, like uh I had the passport red line on my 992. Yes. I mean, I've been on many, many mountain drives. I've heard the thing go off. It's early detected, danger ahead, we'll call it. And I mean, keeps you out of the court system, I'll tell you that much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Oh, yeah, no, it definitely does.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

You were literally invisible.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

I always make the analogy. It's like you know, the officer's on the side of the road, he's he's hitting his uh his radar gun or his laser gun and he's he's looking at the thing like it's not working correctly, you know, and then he shoots the car behind it. Well, let me just try this one. Okay, and he pulls the guy over behind you, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 20:57

One of my favorite stories with that is I was on the phone with some guy, he's he was swearing up and down. He's like, Man, this thing doesn't work. I don't know, I've never seen it go off. I don't get it, and all of a sudden I hear laser, laser, laser, and he is staring this cop down and he looks at his pedometer and he's 105. He doesn't realize it's 105, he's just on the phone and he's going 105 and he's on Daytona 400, um, or at least that's what I call it. And uh yeah, he uh he just didn't realize it. And he's like, Oh my god, I'm oh god, I'm going to jail. And I'm no, you're not. Yeah, no, you're not. And he's like, sure. And I'm like, You're good. I'm like, did he pull out? He goes, No. I'm like, are you the only one on the road? He goes, Yeah, he has me. And he, all right. So it's working good? Man, thank you so much. And he was so excited. And just, you know, we were best friends now. Now we're now we're absolutely best friends.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Now we're best friends. Yeah, now we're absolutely best. It does work.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

It does work. Yeah, and he he became a uh evangelist for the laser and radar after that.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And you know, that's the the thing with that product is it's not when you intend to speed, it's when you're in that exact situation. Yeah. Driving, you're on the phone, you're you're you're maybe slightly distracted. You're just, you know, these cars go 100, they go 80, they go 70, and that's 20 and 30 over sometimes. And uh you don't know it, you don't intend to, but that's when this thing makes sense. It's not when you're paying attention and looking for the cops and you want to spiritedly drive in the mountains because you're looking, you're actively, you're aware of your surroundings, you're looking for those sides, you're looking for the signs. When a car breaks way up there, you know, oh man, that might be a cop. Yeah. Uh ways is up, you're looking at everything. It's that scenario. That scenario where it saves you. Because it goes and you go, oh, all right, yep, breaks. I know what to do. I've been programmed. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

So when you when you guys are working on the exotic stuff, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLaren, I mean, how much of it is plug and play and how much do you have to custom fab on some of these course?

SPEAKER_00 22:49

I mean, they're really the plug and play, we call that plug and pray. Oh, really? Because it never seems to it never seems to work out. Um, it's never truly plug and play. And when it does, we we actually do start praying how happy we are because it's a shock that it actually plugged in. Um, but most of the scenarios, it's we've got to adjust, we've got to move, we've got to relocate. Um, you know, we're not the YouTube techs where we have to go and look up every every car on YouTube. Most of our techs use the trial and error to have and have figured it all out. They've broken stuff, which happens, and they figured out the hard way.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Obviously, you guys replace it.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Of course, of course. And and that's part of it. You know, we gotta we you are you're all as long as you're honest and you have integrity, you tell people, look, this is an honest mistake, we take care of it, we pay for it, we fix it, we put it in a rental car if we need to, we'll do whatever we need to do. Fly to Germany, I mean, we'll do it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Yeah, but your reputation means more than anything. Absolutely. I mean, you guys have earned that over the years. It's it's so hard to earn and it's so easy to lose. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

You know, absolutely. It's it's how you handle those situations.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

And you guys are you're a Brabus dealer, no?

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

You know, Brabus, obviously, you know, Mercedes, I think they're doing Porsches. I think I've seen well, they've got a Lamborghini Urus now, they're doing some AMG stuff, like with the uh the shooting break, Rolls-Royce even, yeah. Yep. Uh when did that relationship come together?

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Um, so my history, uh, my dad was great friends with the CEO of Brabus, Boodo Bushman, um, as he was growing up. And uh he was kind of helped him broker a few deals, and that friendship grew into hey, you know what? I'll help you launch Brabus in the United States. And he helped him launch it. So Brabus USA is my dad, Nader Alborno. Um, so he is the president of that company. Um, so that's how I, by proxy, got the rights to sell it in my store. Um, so yeah, that's uh I've I've always been around Brabus. I always have been around Mercedes. I've it's it's in my blood. Yeah, saying and uh he's uh Brabus USA is built out of Newport Beach, California. Um they've got that one major location there, and uh they they pump out some cars, man. Yeah, uh I mean G 800 horsepower, G63s, uh like you wouldn't believe.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

And their product quality is just next to none. Oh, yeah. It's so precise.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

Oh, yeah. I mean, Brabus and I don't know what the number was is now, but I mean the total revenue of that company, they are the world's largest tuner. There is nobody, there is no substitute, no one is even close.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

And their facility is phenomenal. I mean, it's better than some OE manufacturing facilities.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Unreal. Yeah. I mean, uh the last tour I did, I'll I won't I'll never forget this, but the the as they were explaining and we're going through, they're like, Yeah, we have a level six hurricane simulator, and I'm like, what's that? Because, well, I thought the maximum was a level five. No, no, no, no, level six. Wow. Like, what does that mean? Well, it's 180 mile an hour winds with 180 mile an hour force rain at all 360 degree angles on a car. And we put just about all the cars that we put out through that simulator and see if it leaks anywhere after the modifications are done. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Next level.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Yeah. I mean, um basically might as well just throw it in the pool. Yeah, I mean it's basically put it underwater and make sure it all works. Yeah, we'll bring it back up. It's it's pretty ridiculous. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

And you had a couple builds too, right? You had a C63S and a E63, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yep, so C63 and an E63 that we built. Uh the C63 was a uh 600, the E63 was a 700. Um, and we basically did the full Brabus gamut on them. Um and then of course we built several G800s over the years, G700s over the years, a couple G800s. Uh and we also have uh something unique coming to Atlanta next month, uh, which is the new AMG uh GT1000. Um so basically it was a started out life as a it's a sorry, Rocket GTS 1000. I can never get the nomenclature correctly. Um but what that car is is it's the shooting brake.

SPEAKER_03 26:51

Yeah, oh man, all carbon.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

Yeah, the whole body's carbon.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

That's $1.4 million for that thing.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yeah, exactly. And one will be in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_03 26:59

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Yes. Uh so one of the prettiest cars you'll ever see.

SPEAKER_03 27:03

I just love the obscurity of those cars. Like, sure, you could buy a Bugatti or you know, pre-am Bugatti or whatever, but like I love that. Yeah, you know, because nobody else is gonna have it. Yeah, and then you're gonna go out to the garage and you're gonna start it, and it starts every time. Right. It doesn't pitch a fit, right? You know, right.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

So my favorite part about that car being explained is they're like, okay, well, we take an SL. Like, okay, cool. SL63, wonderful. And we everything goes away except the headlights. We keep the headlights. Like, well, that's it. Yeah, just the headlights. Wow. That's it. That's all we need. The computer, obviously, but the headlights, that's all. And the car is unreal. Wait till you see it.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

Oh my god. Can't wait to see it.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

Uh neither can I. It's coming next month. Next month. Next month.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

And it'll be unreal.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

And I guess for the audience, like, what makes Brahmis different than a typical tuner?

SPEAKER_00 27:51

So uh they have more money behind them than anybody else. I mean, like I was I was going into the revenue. The last time I heard their revenue numbers in the $500 and $600 million annual annual range. Um, and and tuners just don't do that. Yeah. They j I mean, $50 to $100 million is crazy for a tuner. Um, but when you're talking four or five, six hundred million, and then they're also talking about building islands in Dubai off the coast of the city. I've seen that, yeah. And they're yeah, and and they've just gone ballistic.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

It's such a brand versus just a two, it's not like a tuner that's just fixing cars, it's like a whole brand in itself, which is impressive.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

I mean, the the I love their tagline, and it's their tagline is one second wow. And what that means is we want you to look at our car and in one second go, Wow, that's a cool car. That's their whole philosophy. Yeah, that's their whole design language. That's a pretty cool design language.

SPEAKER_03 28:42

Yeah, they're amazing. I did happen to go into the uh the Bob Forstner Brabbis store in London when my wife and I was there, and it was just super cool. That's on Park Lane, too.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

This was like the road to be on. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

And it was just phenomenal. Of course, we left with like some Brabbis swag and stuff. You know, you had to keep right over here. Yeah, yeah. I wish and then um I wanted to get into a little bit about what you drove in here today.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yes. Yes. So this is the 26 Targa 4 GTS. Um basically it is Porsche's new uh 3.6 liter uh T hybrid, uh, which I never thought I would say I'd be in a 911 hybrid. Um, but that's what it is. It's a 911 hybrid. Uh the only thing hybrid about it really is the electric, the electrically driven turbos. Um, but man, is it a fun drive? And uh I was a little like hesitant on the car initially, uh, just because I didn't know what to expect, given that um it's got a hybrid component to it. But the the car, the the complaint with turbo-driven cars obviously has always been lag.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

You know, oh when is the turbo gonna hit and is it reliable, consistent, and across all rev ranges. Well, this turbo is spooled up to 10 psi at 500 RPM.

SPEAKER_03 29:59

Yeah, that's insane.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

I mean, it's just it's all you hear is spinning turbo right off the bat.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

Yeah, we're we're no longer using like virtually no turbo lag anymore. There actually is no turbo lag there.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

And and uh it it's incredibly quick, it's responsive. Um, the launch control is is uh wild. And Porsche, I mean, you look at their numbers, uh, it's never really that impressive. Well, I mean, you know all about that.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Oh, yeah, they sandbag it.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

You just yeah, you look at the numbers, you go, it's 500 horsepower. Oh, that's nice. Uh that doesn't seem that quick. Oh, it looks a little heavy. And then you get in it and you go, this'll beat anything. Oh, yeah. And and it's like it works. Yeah, it works. It's just an engineering feat every single time. I mean, you know, Porsche is not a car company first, they're an engineering company first.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

They are engineers. Um, that's what they do. Uh the car is just, uh, it's the fun part. But they are an engineering company.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

And of course, you got the whole suite of cartoons goodies on it. Can you run through the list or two? Oh, yeah. Okay. So by the way, the wheels are insane.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

The the pretty part are uh on the outside that that's the visual as well. GT3 side skirts, VLOS, custom wheels, three-piece. Um we've got my escort radar laser protection package, of course, um, which got me here safely and helped me avoid a few speeding tickets. Um I've got the Focal P60 sound system, and that that's uh basically Focal, one of the brands that we carry, one of our better audio brands.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Uh they build a they built a uh sound system specifically for the 911.

SPEAKER_03 31:23

Oh, perfect.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

They made 911 of them. They're all numbered 911. Ironically, I have number 60 died, and that wasn't planned. It just happened to work out. Sure it wasn't. I swear it wasn't planned, but it's in there. Um, and yeah, I've got it in there. It comes with this cool suitcase. It's all bad. You'll have to hear it. It's uh I mean it sounds incredible, and then it's amplified and got all the goodies in there. Um, and uh for exterior sound, it's got the soul performance uh downpipe and charge pipe. So as I pulled up and Grant says, Is that a blow-off valve? Yeah, basically made a cool blow-off valve.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

That's amazing. And you guys do a ton of those installs, by the way, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're we're quickly becoming one of the largest soul performance dealers in the southeast.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

So anybody out there with a Porsche that needs some horsepower upgrades, we've got you. Cartoons has you covered.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

How much do you think you've switched from just like the interior work to actual like full car work? You call it so as as far as like what's yeah, like sound systems and radar versus like the full package of uh upgrades.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

So the sound system on a car like this, um you can budget anywhere between six to twenty thousand, just depending on from mile to wild kind of thing. Um, this is not the full wild, this is kind of like the in-between. Um, so it's it's palatable for a 9-11 owner, but still like uh it's a kick. And and yeah, it's you but once you experience it and you go, okay, I I get it. I mean, in reality, everything on a Porsche is uh atrociously expensive sometimes. So the LED matrix headlights that uh look a slightly brighter are $7,000. Why do you have that? Well, it's because it says LED matrix on it, but does it do much better and light the road much better? Yeah, negligible. However, the sound system, oh my goodness. Yeah. I mean, you get in a car with Burmistor and you get in this, and it's night and day.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

And you're gonna pay big for Burmistor Sound. You are.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

I mean the Burmistor sound isn't cheap. You know, you you were in the Porsche world for so long. It's a 6k option.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

Is it six? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Yeah, and that's over and above the Bose option. That's right. Yeah, it's really nine.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

So for another half step, you can get what you have in here or something close to. Blow it out of the water, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

And absolutely blow it out of the water.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Yeah. And can I be honest for a second? Yeah, I wasn't that impressed with the Burmester sound system in the 9-11. Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong, it's great for all intents and purposes, but you know, I think it sounds better in some of the larger Porsches. You're like, it's great. Tycon. It's not great. Yeah, like the difference in price between the Bows and the Burmester, just on the 9-11. I'm just gonna be honest, like uh I didn't see the value there, so I didn't put it on there. But I would have much rather had something like this.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Exactly. I mean, that's that's well, I'm glad you feel that way because that keeps us in business. So I appreciate that. Um, but something like the Burmester 4D systems that we're hearing on the uh on the uh on the uh S63s and stuff like that, those are some of the best sounding systems straight out the gate because it's got 30, 40 speakers and it sounds really good.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Yeah, very cool. All right, so uh where do you see cartoons headed in the next few years? What's the future vision looking like?

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Um, radar and laser is always gonna be around. Um, it's been around for a long, long, long time and will continue to be around for a long, long, long time. Um that's as long as people are driving cars. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, and it's never going to be something that's incorporated from the factory. So we don't have to worry about OEMs coming and jumping up and saying, hey, we've got radar and laser protection in our cars to keep you from getting speeding tickets. It's not something that's gonna be OEM offered. Um, so that's that's always gonna be a good thing for us. And then better sound is always gonna be around as well. Um, with the additional regulations that we're probably gonna be seeing over time, um, they're probably gonna want to have more protection for your ears. Oh, you can't be over a certain decimal rating. Oh, you can't have this, and and you know, hey, we don't believe in that. We want you to enjoy your sound system and turn it up when you want to and and you know have it for you. Um, we don't want some some engineer telling you how it should sound. We want to tell you and we want to tailor it to you. Yeah, and that's the intention. So um that's probably gonna stay around. Um, and then we've diversified into obviously some of the performance stuff and the exterior stuff. Um, so we're you know, this this company has been ever evolving. Yeah. Um when I came in, Bluetooth was huge. Oh, yeah. Huge. It was we're doing Bluetooth in every car. What's Bluetooth? Oh, that's so cool. Um, and then now CarPlay. That's you know, it's not in every car, it's in most, but it's not in every car. And some cars are now even dropping it. Um, so we're doing car play in a ton of cars, and that fad is gonna eventually disappear and get replaced with something else. Some technology that we'll be able to integrate on the aftermarket.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Yeah, you think there's multiple locations in the future, or you you you like the simplicity of one?

SPEAKER_00 35:53

I like the simplicity of one. Um, I I enjoy that we can keep everything in-house and also maintain that quality control because that's the fear is when you start growing and expanding, the QC starts to go away because you know you can't multiply yourself. And and yes, we have a great team, and yes, we have great people behind us, but uh just uh we gotta maintain some level of of QC there. Yeah, and once you start getting out of that, uh I feel like it it becomes more corporate, less fun. And and that's kind of the thing I love about this company is it's still fun. I still enjoy coming to work every day.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

That's awesome. Yeah, that's that's what it's about. That's excellent. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

So quick round of rapid fire here, you ready? Let's go. Best factory audio system in a car.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

S63. Talking about the um with that 40 Burmistor system with the base shakers in the seats and all that fun stuff in there.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

Oh, yeah. Scroll out of the dash, yeah. Most overrated audio brand.

SPEAKER_00 36:52

Oh, don't get me in trouble.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

I know. Just use one of the manufacturers you don't sell.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah, I'm I'm thinking through them real fast. Um you want to skip? No, no. I I think I'm gonna go. I hate to say this. I'm not a big fan of Rockford, so I'm gonna stick to that. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

Fair enough. Uh favorite Porsche generation.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

I'm three.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

Good answer. Dream car to build a full sound system in.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

That guy.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

Most complicated car you've ever worked on.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Aston Martin Zagato.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

Ah, I think I know the one.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

Probably do.

SPEAKER_03 37:32

Uh one upgrade every car enthusiast should consider.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

Radar laser protection. Good answer, yeah. I would have to agree. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:39

And then Dream Three Car Garage. Obviously, this is it, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

So, yes and no. Um, Dream Three Car Garage would be a uh 190 Cosworth.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Oh, love the yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

I mean, I just absolutely have an affinity for that car. Always have a lot of.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

I love the HWA uh reimagined car too.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Oh, yeah, I've seen that. I mean, that's just so cool. Um, and then uh gotta have a 993 turbo.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

Uh that that's the 94993 turbo. That's that's it. And particularly, I'm I'm you know, in the tuner world, the roof CTR2S is like one of the coolest cars on the planet to me. Agreed. Um, so that uh that would be number two. And then number three is doesn't exist, but it'd be what I would want. And it would be that guy with a turbo motor. A turbo S Targa.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

Targa, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Turbo S Targa. If they make that, I would be in heaven.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

I'm kind of on the same page with you there. I've always said they should make a GTS rear-wheel drive Targa. Yeah. But they're all four-wheel drive for whatever reason. But you can get a two in a coupe.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Right.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

You can get a two in a cab, but targa's like, nope, no wheel drive. Just getting a four.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Yeah, that's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

Yeah. Well, Imran, thanks for stopping by, man. Such a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Absolutely. Thanks, Carr.

SPEAKER_03 38:52

Guys, we'll catch you on the next one. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Awesome. Thanks a lot.