The Avants Podcast

SNOWPOCALYPSE STRIKES SEATTLE! Actually, that’s not too far off. The city shutdown for most of us for about a week. We brought back Branden Ben Powell with Avants Off Road and King County Search and Rescue to give us some stories and talk about the work S&R has been doing, which isn’t necessarily what you might think.

To answer your first question, no this isn’t a joke and we have the pics to prove it! Jeff Evans of Throttle Grotto tells us about RallyCross in the PNW and how he started doing it with a Prius. More importantly, he was competitive! Just goes to show, you really can race anything.

In this episode we recap the fun, the work, and the Wankers we met in Scottsdale. This was another adventure to remember with great people and we’re already looking forward to next year. If you think these stories are good, you should hear the ones we couldn’t record! We have to put out a HUGE thanks to Seth Thomas of APC Auto Spa and Davis Mock who volunteered there time to help with our event. M...

We talk to our friend and fellow Podcaster Mark Greene of Cars Yeah about how he got started and what made him the host of one of the biggest automotive Podcasts going today. To date, Mark has produced over 1,200 episodes with all sorts of world famous automotive guests. Our Podcasts have a a pretty different format and we’ve got to hand it to him and his success. Mark is a good friend and we had...

On this episode we have the local, the legendary, WINGNUT! You’ll probably recognize his voice from his real job as the afternoon DJ on 100.7! Wingnut is a huge car and motorcycle guy and tracks both his GTR and his Ducati Panigale 1199R. It’s such a small world in the car world. Enjoy this episode while Dan tries to keep up and stay on topic while Nick’s and Wingnut’s ADD runs wild. Get to know y...

Did you wonder what the title “Master Collector” actually meant? Listen to the follow up episode with Master Collector Peter Gleeson and you will quickly understand exactly why they call him “Master Collector.” The BMW fans are especially going to love this episode, but we’ve got something here for just about everyone. You might even be able to strike up a conversation with that art history major...

Peter Gleeson is one of those rare people you hope just keeps talking. His car collection is more than a collection of nice cars he bought because they were good investments or eye catching; each car has a story - like being involved in a bank robbery. We’re already looking forward to having Peter back on in the future and we’re sure you will too. In part one of this two part episode, Peter talks...

Did we say great? We may have been overselling it a little, but it was fun! We asked our friend and crowd favorite previous guest Jason Bourriague to come into Drivers Club and join us for a fun episode sharing stories and recapping what a fun year we’ve had. Photographer Karl Noakes even had us dress up extra nice for the photos. Jason made sure to make us look bad, but we digress.

Our guests this week are Scott Ingebretson and Katrina Couch who organize Jet Center Events in Scottsdale, AZ and do the marketing for Concorso Italiano in Monterey during car week. If you’re looking for how the big time shows run, these are the ones to talk to.

The most common question we get asked when people ask about Drivers Club is “What is Drivers Club?” Well, we could spin that question 100 different ways, but Doug Perry is here to tell you himself.

We love stories. It’s actually why we do this - we meet a lot of great people with great stories we think the people will want to hear. When eGarage does this they turn it into fine art on the screen. As fans of eGarage we were really excited to have Ben Abrams on our show to hear more about his creative vision, his life, his cars, and the future of eGarage. Ben was kind enough to open up and tell...

Continuing in our trend of talking to awesome couples with a love for cars, we talk to Matt and Allison Byers about buying and building cars their way from the very beginning. Being together since before they could drive, they talk car adventures, car shows, and car builds together. Get to know them and say hello next time you see them at one of the MANY car shows you’ll find them at.

We’ve got some exciting news about the progression of Rain City Supercars (with more to come!), Dan talks about meeting Derek Bell, we discuss McLarens and other Hypercars, and talk about upcoming road trips you can be a part of! We took this episode to just be car guys and talk car stuff.

We’ve got Joe and Dana, the founders of one of our favorite shops, MULE Expedition Outfitters. Mule is who we turn everyone to if they need advice on how to do a build right. We are huge offroad fans and Mule is a game changer for the PNW offering more than just fancy parts for sale. We first found out about Mule when they were offering free tech sessions on everything to do with offroad. We love...

We talk to Shannon Low of Authentic Motorcars in Redmond. If you’ve spent anytime in the car scene in the PNW your probably know Shannon as a staple in the car community here. Shannon is a specialist in just about every car brand, but especially the obscure and unique. Unlike us, he’s a jack of all cars and a master of most. Tune in and hear about LaForza, Spkyer, Saab, and more!

WE MADE IT TO EPISODE 50! It’s been quite a ride and we decided to take this episode to recap some of our favorite moments, guests, and a few of our blunders over the last year. We tried to narrow it down to our favorite episodes since the start and it wasn’t easy, but we felt like these were some milestones we personally enjoyed. If you haven’t heard us before or you’re new to the podcast, give t...

Just so you know, this is more like episode 49.5. Nick and Dan were both REALLY sick this week, but we wanted to do a quick episode letting everyone know what’s coming up on RCS as well as introduce our new sponsor, Hagerty! This has always been a labor of love for us, so we’ve been intentionally slow to grab sponsors as we want to only represent brands we personally believe in. We joke a lot, but...

Amanda, Ashley, and Kristen take over the mics for episode 48, which is not 49 like we mentioned in the podcast! The episode is mostly all about the women in the industry who are putting together a driver's group specifically for women enthusiasts that enjoy track time, group drives, and more than just standing next to their cars for attention. The group is officially organized and led by Amanda w...

We talk to the extremely interesting Branden Ben Powell, the owner of the SaRPinz. He talks about one of the most impressive off road vehicles ever made, the Pinzgauer, and how he actively uses it for Search and Rescue. As a huge fan of off-roading, this was easily one of our most entertaining guests to us and even if you have no interest in the off road world, this was a really eye opening interv...

We welcome our friend Adam Cramer with Avants back to talk about the massive growth of Avants since way back in Episode 12 and to talk about all the amazing upcoming stuff including his partnership with Blipshift on a PNW tee shirt design, some winter offroading you can do, some rainy weather driving, and more! We talk about Avants often on our show with good reason. If you’re an enthusiast it mak...

On this week’s episode we get a visit from John Schommer aka JOHNIWANNA aka Heavy Metal Affliction! John is a Forza Content Creator, streamer, writer, and photographer and you can find him on IG as Heavy Metal Affliction where he chronicles his love of cars. John is a man after our own hearts who loves cars and the people that love them.

In this episode we discuss some polar opposite drives - a sunny Sunday in a McLaren 675LT Spider and an off road excursion in a Land Rover Discovery Sport! It’s hard to describe in any form of communication outside of a stupid grin just how amazing the 675LT is and if you haven’t done any off road driving you don’t know what you’re missing!

It's almost impossible to describe what Monterey Car Week is actually like if you've never been before. It's even harder to accurately describe what it was like for Dan this year. We'll walk you through the day by day of our trip, which was every bit as great for us as it sounds and hopefully convinces you to put this on your bucket list if you've never been. Check out our gallery here for the pho...

WE ARE BACK! And there's a bonus episode coming just a few days after this one! We had an insane amount of fun on the rally and our best year ever in Monterey. On this episode we discuss bug genocide, back roads, bears, bad car washes, and SO MUCH MORE. Buckle up! 

We talk about the Sea-Mont Rally and all things Car Week. Get ready for a lot of updates on social media, live streams, and a whole lot of road tripping!  We're headed down 97 and the Volcanic National Scenic Byway to Yosemite and then to Monterey for Car Week! You can follow us on our journey via our Instagram and Facebook as well as some updates coming here. Stay tuned for a lot fun times ahead!...