NEW CAR REVIEWS : one off Porsche 997 widebody and BMW E30 touring widebody

New Car Reviews

NEW CAR REVIEW When most pro basketball players retire, they don’t walk into a Subaru dealership and ask for a job as a mechanic’s apprentice. They also don’t have a widebody Porsche 997 and BMW E30 Touring in their garage. Leo Lyons is different

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00:00I've always been attracted to rarity and once I saw the first old new kit, I think I saw it on the Hot Wheels

00:07I started like researching like where could I find one of these kits and it was very hard to find

00:11And then when I found one, I was like, okay, I know that this is the one

00:15Once it was fitted. Yeah, I was very happy with that decision

00:17I'm a professional basketball player who's converting to the car world because I love cars

00:35I was attracted to cars at a very young age and living in the country

00:39I was able to drive way earlier than I was supposed to drive

00:42Hopping behind wheels of anything that I could hop behind and just drive

00:45So the experience of driving alone always was kind of what drove me to want to be in a car

00:54I was just one of those tall kids that everybody said you should play basketball

00:58Like I was told that from a very young age and up until I got to the pros

01:03I didn't realize what basketball truly was

01:06It showed me that it's a true business and the lifestyle and everything that comes with it

01:10And that's what really attached me because it showed me that I can use basketball to get what I want

01:16I picked up some really hard lessons very early in my career

01:21My first year was in jerusalem, but then I went to turkey

01:24Learning how to live in different cultures and how to live within different religions and seeing these places

01:30I think made me a worldly human being

01:33The biggest influence i've had so far was when I played in chiba japan for two years

01:39And that's kind of what drove me to being able to collect the things I want to collect

01:43At that point in my life I bought a home and I felt like I needed a couple cars

01:47So I went and I got a r8 and I got the porsche 997

01:51When I first got it I felt in love it was the red it was hearing the sounds of a porsche and getting

02:07Acquainted with the car was probably my best part

02:10Some of the roads I was able to drive on just listening to the car with the windows down next to some water with the sun

02:16I know you in a porsche is where you want to be as a man in my opinion

02:25The connection from asia was obvious living in tokyo for seven years

02:29I was able to be there and then meet a lot of people and getting a lot of rooms

02:33I probably shouldn't have been in which kind of led me to this car

02:37I would do interviews and you know talk to people and I let it be known that

02:40I'm in the cars and I'm in the fashion and things like that a fan of the team ended up taking me to the rwb factory

02:47And I spent some time there with Akira Nakai

02:51I was able to work in the factory for a little bit. I followed him around for a little bit

02:55Seeing him work and being around them and seeing how people revere him to this day has always motivated me to want to

03:02Do exactly what he does and that's opened up a shop where I can do everything I wanted to do

03:07Meeting him showed me that there is a place for me in creating in a world like that

03:14There's a very big wide-body culture in Japan so that's always something I've been attracted to

03:19Seeing the whole rwb thing up close and personal got me even more attracted to it

03:24I wanted to get a rwb kit and I was in line to get one

03:27But then COVID hit and it kind of slowed everything up and I was like

03:30I don't want to wait and it kind of led me to getting the old new kit

03:34And I couldn't be happier with the decision

03:38I've tried to fit in some of my favorite cars and it just breaks my heart makes me want to cry every time I try

03:42So being able to fit was the first thing and then noticing how the Porsche body shape was

03:47I was a little bit wider than everything I was a little bit more sleeker

03:51How they've been able to keep essentially the same shape for this long and still attracts people

03:56That is exactly what attracts me to Porsche

04:00The style of it is just something that's timeless and I feel the same way about BMW which is why I have that

04:07During my transition from basketball, unfortunately I was injured

04:11I'm sitting there with this large cast on my knee watching YouTube videos and I came across a Larry Chin video

04:17And I saw the E30 Touring for the first time

04:22I was in Tokyo at the time and I was preparing to move back to Manhattan to my apartment

04:27So I had my eyes to the streets looking for anything that I could find for my first car coming back home

04:33I wanted that car so I DM Larry Chin

04:36Hey, do you know this guy is he selling that car and in the video he said clearly I'm not selling this car

04:41I would never sell this car

04:43So this is not for sale?

04:44Yeah, no this I don't think it'll ever be for sale. This is my pride and joy

04:48It was a turbocharged station wagon and at the time I had just found out that my baby girl was on the way

04:54And what he called it was a dad's race car and that really attracted me

04:59So I reached out to him and I just threw it out there

05:02If you ever want to sell that car consider me first please

05:05And he said he just happened to want to sell it

05:07He started sending me videos and photos kind of enticing me every single day

05:14Before you know it he had a cashier's check in his hand and we were sitting in Starbucks in Brooklyn

05:19And he handed me over the keys and I was like this is my gift to myself

05:22And this is what I'm gonna drive my daughter around in when she comes of age

05:25So that's the reason why I got her

05:33I'm training right now to be a certified mechanic

05:36It was moments where I had driving around in whatever car I had

05:41And someone would ask me a question or something would happen to the car

05:44And I would have to pay it outrageous some amount of money to get it fixed

05:48It's more respectable for a person to be able to work on their car

05:51So it kind of drove me

05:52So I started looking on YouTube at Chris Fix It

05:55And I started buying books and started pulling up on shops and asking them questions

05:59And being more involved with my builds

06:02And you know it kind of led me to wanting to train and be certified

06:07German engineering is very complicated if you're new to being a mechanic

06:11That kind of challenge is something that allows me to take what I learned from basketball

06:15And put it into being a mechanic

06:17It makes people upset with how simple I am sometimes

06:23I just don't want to do things that I don't love

06:25I played basketball for a very long time and once I didn't love it

06:28It's like what next?

06:29And that's why I picked up a sewing machine and started learning how to sew

06:32And then I started seeing that sewing wasn't going to pay the bills

06:35So what's next?

06:37What's my next love?

06:38And it was cars

06:38And that's kind of what led me to making the decisions I made

06:42With just throwing myself into cars completely

06:47Everything that I've had from basketball

06:49All the connections

06:50Everywhere I've been in this world

06:52And told people that I love cars

06:54And pulled up to dealerships

06:55And talked to people about their cars

06:57And I kept all these connections when I finished with basketball

07:00I've always been planting my seeds towards the end of my career

07:03Being able to pull up in Europe

07:04Being able to pull up in Japan

07:06And anywhere else on this world

07:08And talk to people and go buy some cars

07:10And bring them to one central place

07:12I feel like makes my shop special

07:13And that's why I want to do it

07:16It was always the freedom of being behind something that can go really fast

07:20Like that was always my intentions

07:23Whether if it was bikes or skateboards or cars

07:27Or whatever I can get behind that can go fast

07:29Like that was always what I wanted to do

07:32Every time I collected a Hot Wheel

07:33I knew I was going to get that car

07:35Like I'm collecting this

07:36Because I'm going to get it one day

07:38That's kind of where my theme came from

07:39With the cars that I do buy

07:41And which is kind of more wide-bodied

07:43Than I probably should have

07:44It's because I want my cars to actually look like Hot Wheels

07:48The two hot red cars in here

07:50Are more Hot Wheels than anything, you know

07:51So that's kind of my aim

07:53To try to create and make builds

07:55That make me feel like that kid again

07:57That was collecting Hot Wheels

07:59Starting the show

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