The Avants Podcast

Emme Hall describes herself as “Driver, reviewer, rabble rouser”, but we think she left out that she might be the most epic of adventurers. Rebelle Rally? Check. Baja racer? Check. Crossed Mongolia on a knock-off 49cc Monkey motorcycle? Also check. Needless to say, if you know anything about us, we are fans. Between all that fun she is also a great writer, and one we have followed for a long time...

This week we talk with Amir Bentatou, owner of RS Future, and probably the nicest NSX on the road and on the track. Amir obsessively worked his way up through the motorsports ranks to create his company RS Future, which makes functional aerodynamic race components and more! Amir talks with us all about aerodynamics, Time Attack, drifting, NSXs, and his upcoming Discovery channel show, Monster Gara...

Paul Charsley is the Motorsports Manager for Heart of Racing and just won 24 Hours of Daytona, but before going home he gave us a call. We literally had to reschedule Paul because he told us “I need to go win Daytona, but we can do the show afterwards.” True to his word, he gives us the recap of Daytona, tells us about Aston Martin’s comeback, The Heart of Racing all women’s team, and Aston Martin...

We first met Felix at the 2022 Avants Classics on the Green last summer and we’ve been excited to have him on the show ever since. Felix was instrumental in shaping our love of Hot Wheels and then went on to creating incredible art with people like Magnus Walker, all while still being a successful bass player. Felix is another one of those special guests with endless interesting stories from livin...

We catch up with long time friend John Kleven, who is now the President of STEK USA. Long time listeners may remember John from all the way back on Episode 32, but a lot has changed since our first chat! John talks about how STEK started, lessons from owning Metropolitan Detail, and his constantly changing and fun car collection. 

This week we talk with Arun Sharma, General Manager of Ferrari Newport Beach. More than selling cars, Arun has a long history in the motorcycle world when he ran Motorcorsa. Arun has some great insights on the past, present, and future of Ferrari as well as some really fun stories of his time in the business. Explicit, unfiltered content warning

We welcome our long time friends STEK USA as an official sponsor of the Avants Podcast! 2022 was a great year for us and we had some amazing guests, but we think we can do even better in 2023 with their help! Avants has more events, more partners, and we’re growing into even more places. Adam and Krissy join us for this episode and we share our favorite memories of 2022 and share what you should b...

You don’t have to be a photographer to really love this episode with Jamey Price, but if you are, you are in for a real treat! Jamey is one of the most successful, talented, awarded, and well known photographers in motorsports today. We get Jamey’s fun story of moving from Steeplechase Horse Racing all the way to his incredibly successful career as a motorsports photographer. You probably know Jam...

Stefan is one of those people who just never stops amazing us. From racing Formula 1 and Endurance Driving and then going on to become the incredible artist he is today, he seems to have that golden touch. Stefan starts us off with his stories of racing at the most hardcore time in history to his decision to move to full time artist. Stefan will have a section in an upcoming edition of the Avants...

It’s almost Christmas and we hope you are enjoying the holidays! If you’re still looking for some last minute gifts, we’ve got a few ideas for any budget, but on this episode we have a chat about our Christmas lists and hopefully you’ll get a few ideas from us.

Thanks to Avants Chief Editor Karl Knoakes, we had the pleasure of interviewing the exceptionally talented Lyn Hiner. Lyn is a truly incredibly artist; her paintings would be as at home in a luxury garage as they would be in an executive office or your living room. If you’re looking for the perfect addition to top off your collection, this is definitely your stop. Check our the gallery attached to...

Michael Lencioni of Canyon Park Vehicle Licensing answers all of our many questions about the unfortunate mystery of vehicle licensing. You would think it would be pretty easy to register a car or know what you need to sell a car, but if you're buying out of state, buying a car with damage, or buying a car with a lien holder, you may have some questions. Lucky for you, now you have a resource to c...

This extra episode is all about our mistakes and of course our potential for more of them as we start our winter projects! Recently an R34 GTR made the rounds on Bring a Trailer, and after some sleuthing by the community it was determined to have quite the problem history of an extensive list of repairs that were undisclosed by the seller. This sparked the thought of what was our most expensive ca...

We partnered with our friends at LeMay - America’s Car Museum to do a live podcast with legendary designer Rick Dore. Rick is most famously responsible for being the man behind the collection of Metallica front man, James Hetfield, and his designs have made front pages and centerfolds for just about every automotive magazine in the industry. Tune in to learn all about his design process and be sur...

This week we got a chance to talk with collector and racer Larry Vollum. Avants Charter members have had the chance to see this collection first hand, but the stories are as cool as his collection! Larry Vollum has been collecting rare and unusual cars for decades. Larry’s fascination with importing vintage rally cars and his past racing experiences has provided him the opportunity to acquire some...

This special episode was recorded live in front of almost 100 of our Avants Charter Members at the incredible Rimmer family warehouse! We welcome Steve, James, and Josie Rimmer to the show as we get to know the family behind DirtFish Rally School and their stories. Alternative working titles for this episode are "Whatever Josie Says" and "Josie Rimmer and her Dad and brother." 

This week we talk to Joe Potter, founder of Vintage Underground in Eugene, OR all about the fine art of converting vintage Jaguar E-Types into modern, electric masterpieces. Vintage Underground may be based in Eugene, OR, but this is no mom and pop restoration shop. Vintage Underground is a cutting edge restoration shop that specializes in British and European cars and is now a pioneer in the elec...

This week on the show we welcome Steve Bortolotti, General Manager of the IMSA winning team Pfaff Motorsports! You probably know the Pfaff livery even if you don’t follow IMSA racing since they have the best looking Porsche on the track in it’s clearly Canadian plaid wrap. Steve tells us all about the high and lows of racing, modding his Time Attack RX8, and a whole lot more. We can’t wait to see...

Continuing our trend of long overdue interviews, this week we have Michelle Miller! When she’s not busy co-driving for Lucy Block at Hoonigan, Michelle is an instructor with our friends at DirtFish. Listen in to hear all about her exciting life in both the driver and passenger seat.

In this interview that’s about 5 years overdue, we talk to Matt Bell, founder of The Shop Clubs. Matt talks about being able to “scratch all his creative itches” with The Shop Clubs, his expansion to Texas, motorcycle trips through Europe, and so much more! Matt is a true enthusiast who does a lot for the car community and a great partner for Avants that you should know. Be sure to check out The S...

We drive everything here at Avants, but a lot of us ride everything too! Dan’s been riding basically his whole life, and even worked in the industry for a while, and Nick’s done just about everything you can think of to his Monkey and CRF450RL, so on this episode we discuss some of our favorite and least favorite mods. We think you can use this episode to get some fun Christmas ideas too. We recom...

This week we talked with the very talented Christi Schimpke, owner and designer at Crash Jewelry! Crashing your car rarely is a good feeling outside of a figure 8 at your local track, but Christi has taken tragedy and turned that twisted metal into jewelry you'll actually want to wear. She sells special items she has curated herself through her connections in the autobody industry or you can work...

If driving around Europe isn't on your bucket list, it definitely should be. Dan spent almost a month doing just that and has some great tips to make your life a little easier as you navigate around hidden speed cameras, tolls, roundabouts, and other things it may take you a little while to warm up to in Europe. He also talks about learning how to blow from a tall, beautiful Viking and really like...

We work a lot with Marketing and Events Manager Brian Dallas at DirtFish. From Avants Off-Road, to WagonFest, to the DirtFish SummerFest, and MANY more, it seems like we're always at DirtFish and we wouldn't have it any other way. We get to know Brian a little better and talk about his love for Minis, cycling, and of course all things Rally. We even got a few surprise visits from some other friend...

In this very special episode of the Avants Podcast we team up with Bring a Trailer Co-founder and President Randy Nonnenberg to announce a very special partnership with Avants! Randy shares his favorite BaT memories, his cars, the Covid car buying boom, and more on this surprise episode!