The Awe and Excitement of Oilstainlab's New HF11 Supercar Brings the Joy Back to Driving

When you mix beauty, engineering and and pure excitement into something that just makes you say, "Hell Yes!", you get a supercar that will blow your mind. Oilstainlab's HF11 is a car built for drivers.

Today we have with us Nitkita Bridan. In 2019, he and his brother Ilya formed Oilstainlabs, to begin producing a one of a kind supercar. The HF11 is a 650hp, 2000 lbs, vehicle that is the perfect mix of heritage, cutting-edge technology, precision engineering, and pure anarchy. With an interchangeable internal combustion or EV powerplant, the HF-11 is being honed to be the ultimate street legal vehicle. Only 25 limited edition cars will be available worldwide with 11 going to discriminating buyers as part of an exclusive “Maniac” package.

So let's talk with Nikita about how they engineered all the excitement into this vehicle.

Welcome Nikita.

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Transcript

Chris Brandt: 0:00

Today, we're talking about the mixture of beauty, engineering, and pure excitement. And this is something that excites the inner teenager in me. So stay tuned. Today, we have with us Nikita Bryden. In 2019, he and his brother, Ilya, formed Oil Stain Labs to begin producing a one of a kind supercar. The HF11 is a 650 horsepower, 2, 000 pound vehicle. That is the perfect mix of heritage, cutting edge technology, precision engineering and pure anarchy. And with an interchangeable internal combustion engine or EV power plant, the HF 11 is being honed to be the ultimate street legal vehicle. Only 25 limited edition cars will be available worldwide with 11 going to discriminating buyers as part of an exclusive maniac package. So let's talk with Nikita about how they engineered all this excitement into this vehicle. Welcome Nikita.

Nikita Bridan: 1:02

Hi, it's a, it's a pleasure to be here, Chris.

Chris Brandt: 1:04

It's awesome to have you. This car is just, you know, like, my, you know, my younger fantasy. Now I'm getting too old for, you know, that much excitement. It might, might kill me, but, um, super cool looking car. And, and like, You know, as supercars are, they're extremely fast and performant and, uh, I'm sure an absolute ton of fun to drive. Um, but before we get there, could you kind of just talk through, I mean, you've kind of, you and your brother, you're, you're twins. Um, so like, it's, uh, the wonder, wonder twin team, you know, powerhouse here building cars. Um, could you talk a little bit about your and Ilya's journey and, you know, like how you got here?

Nikita Bridan: 1:48

It's a very unlikely story in a way, um, so yeah, originally born in, in what is now Ukraine, uh, it was the USSR at the time, and then moved to Canada when I was two. Um, very rural part of Canada, there was no car culture there, so not really sure how we got, uh, bit with this, uh, this car bug. And then, uh, Yeah, just wanted to be basically designers, uh, at the start and then dropped out of high school at 14, moved to Italy, the home of car design, um, did a year and a half there and then came to California, uh, when we were at 16, 17 and I've been here ever since. And then, as you alluded to, uh, in 2019 started oil stain lab to, to build, uh. The dream, I guess, which is our, our kind of our own vision of what supercars and enthusiast cars should be.

Chris Brandt: 2:38

Well, so, so listen to that kids. If you want to be successful, drop out of school at 14. I have, I have a son who just turned 15, so he's not allowed to watch this. But I mean, that's, that's an incredible journey. I mean, going to, going to Italy where, you know, the, the seat of, you know. car design, you know, that, that, that must've been an interesting journey.

Nikita Bridan: 2:58

Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, obviously at 14, you're, you're still very much a sponge, right? So you're absorbing everything, uh, as much as you can and, and just, yeah, the curiosity of it, but also to meet your legends, you know, like George or, or go to visit Penn and Farina. It's, it's yeah, major pinch me moments and it, it left some deep seated sort of inspiration I think. And it's a big thing, kind of a big inspiration for what we do now, you know, that old school Italian approach.

Chris Brandt: 3:25

That's where it's at for sure. Um, so, so tell me like, you know, like. If you want a supercar, probably the best way to get one is not to build a company and make a supercar. It's probably like less expensive, less hard ways to do it. So like what, what inspired the, the craziness to, you know, like go out and start this endeavor?

Nikita Bridan: 3:48

Yeah, I mean you're, you're absolutely right. I mean to, to buy a supercar or a hypercar these days, you know, a few million bucks or whatever to develop your own, you know, an order of magnitude out of a few zeros, right? Um, but, you know, after sort of 10, 15 years in the industry, you know, kind of learning about how these things are made, how they're, you know, sort of produced and how they're budgeted and developed and all that stuff and seeing, I guess, a really strange moment in the automotive industry where, you know, EV's been sort of making all this progress and then it's just been curtailed the last sort of two years, um, just seeing kind of, There's a better way, you know, after, after 10, 15 years, there's a much better way. There's a much leaner way to do things. Um, and so, yeah, and just the, the passion internally, uh, and, and kind of the drive and the, the desire, I guess, and a bit of masochism, uh, to, uh, to make this thing happen, right? So, um, and then of course with my twin brother, I've got probably the best enabler in the world, you know. Um, so when one of us thinks it's a bad idea, it's, yeah, it's, it leads to some interesting situations, right? When, when two people. Somehow stubbornly agree that it is a good idea. So yeah, it's, it's, it's a wild journey, but, uh, a very difficult one for sure.

Chris Brandt: 5:09

When we talked earlier, you had said that, you know, you kind of saw the, the passion leaking out of the industry yet, you know, cars weren't as exciting and we've gotten to, you know, like. We've, we've developed a lot of great safety features and automation and, and, and very well designed and built cars, but there was like the essence of driving was kind of missing from that.

Nikita Bridan: 5:33

You know, we've all sort of been lied to a little bit, right? We've all been. told these lies that, oh, it's because of safety or it's because of this that the cars aren't the same as they used to be. And that's just simply not true. The advances in engineering, material technology, we can make the cars way safer than we did back then and they can be just as light and they can be just as much fun. But for some reason I guess consumer clinics or asking the customer or a broad range of customers, uh, too many questions by the OEMs has just led us down this very detached sort of product, uh, I guess development path. And I think it's, you know, it's up to the small guys and the startups and the independents to really sort of carry that torch. It's up to the small, small automotive manufacturers, right? That, that sell 25 cars to carry on that, uh, That sort of passion and the enthusiasts. And is it retro or is it nostalgic? Maybe. But also it's just, it's honest to what the cars are, right? They're made for drivers. So that's never really changed and it shouldn't change because humans haven't changed.

Chris Brandt: 6:40

You're not going to get a third row into, uh, into the HF11 anytime soon.

Nikita Bridan: 6:46

We're, we're dreaming of building a, yeah, an HF11 SUV at some point. A three row minivan. Why not?

Chris Brandt: 6:53

That would be insane. Um, so. So, I mean, you know, you mentioned like it's up to these small manufacturers to sort of carry that. That vision and, and that passion for driving through, I mean, can you speak to the, the, the, the, the benefits of kind of bespoke manufacturing in that regard? And I think, and I think, you know, one of the things that's changed, manufacturing has changed a lot to, you know, the ability to produce smaller quantities of really very custom things, you know. Kind of exists now where, you know, wasn't as easy back in the day, so it seems like the ability to to do that and and to really, you know, get all the things you want out of out of what you're building is is really never been more. Readily available in the now right?

Nikita Bridan: 7:45

Yeah, exactly. And that's such a multifaceted question I'm sure we're gonna get sidetracked here massively, but you're yeah I mean you're absolutely right with the advances in software technology Even a lot of the AI tools that are being developed. You can certainly that into the manufacturing process, the design and engineering process. And it's never been easier to sort of get to a, let's call it a professional level, right? Or a competitive level. Having said that cars have never been better engineered than they have been now. And so that level is much, much higher. Um, so it is easy to also make crap product without a really developed team. Right? So it's easy to get in trouble, but it's also easy to like. to start doing it. So it's kind of a catch 22 situation. Um, but certainly the, the advantage of the small manufacturers is, and I think a lot of people don't necessarily think about this. When you're a big OEM, you need to sign your contracts for technology, batteries, et cetera, seven years ahead of time, right? So if you're going to use a specific battery chemistry, those contracts need to be in place seven years Before and then seven years into the future as that product line launches and gets developed. And so you're talking about, you know, 15 year timelines. As a boutique manufacturer, you're only building 25 cars. You can be so nimble and so quick and you can imagine what happens with software and batteries and EV technology in seven years.

Chris Brandt: 9:11

Yeah, it's moving way too fast for that schedule.

Nikita Bridan: 9:14

Exactly. So if you've seen a cell phone from 15 years ago, go compare that. Right. And so that's where we, that's where basically the boutique manufacturers have such a huge advantage and they can be the early adopters and really drive, uh, the technology forward.

Chris Brandt: 9:28

And it's, it sounds like you might be, you know, buy a racetrack right now.

Nikita Bridan: 9:31

This is the drag strip of, of Long Beach where I'm locator at Signal Hill. So yes. Well, you might hear a burnout, you might hear a takeover, an intersection takeover. So yeah.

Chris Brandt: 9:43

Um, so, okay, so tell, tell us about this amazing vehicle, the HF 11. There's just so much into this, but let's, let's sort of start with like what you were going for. With regard to, you know, sort of the feel of the vehicle and the aesthetic of the vehicle

Nikita Bridan: 10:20

were a bit of a car historian group here. We love old old race cars, and we really strongly believe kind of late sixties, early seventies up to about 72 was kind of the glory days of of automobile design, manufacturing, racing, everything. It was, it was when racing was, yeah, properly dangerous. It was fun. It was unregulated. It was, you know, the wild, wild West. And, uh, to us, that's obviously we're too young to have lived it, but we can romanticize it. Right. And that's what I do. Um, so it very much drives. Sort of our vision for what we want this car to be and what we want our brand to stand and and be all about Um, so we kind of yeah mimic those things but obviously with modern safety and everything Um, the car itself is is very sort of minimalistic from the from the exterior Um, we've tried to have a very big element of what we call magic Uh, so, you know, there's, there's that famous Darren Clark, uh, Darren C. Clark, uh, quote where any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic. Right. Right. So you're building magic. I probably butchered. But yeah, we, we want people to look at it and be like, there's no way this works. There's no way they've been able to put all these features and things in there. And, you know, we just want it to be this sort of obelisk. Um, and so that drove our design and drove sort of the engineering vision for it as well. Um, and it's a very, you know, 1960s. It's a simpler time. It's, it was, it was more optimistic. It was, uh, less aggressive. And so, yeah, that's, that's kind of what we try and, uh, strive for in the, in the vision design for the car.

Chris Brandt: 12:01

You know, when I look at the car, it definitely has a lot of that sort of Italian design sensibility to it. It seems, but it's also got kind of that American flair, almost like, you know, like the GT 400 kind of, you know, vibe to it, you know, the just, it's, it's a little speed racer, a little bit, you know, a little bit Ferrari, Lamborghini kind of things going on, you know, what, what were your inspirations on that?

Nikita Bridan: 12:28

It's funny you say that because we, when people ask us, we're kind of like, yeah, we're Italian coach building because that's where we went to school originally. And then we came to California and finished our studies. And it's a very much. a Hollywood storytelling place to be, right? I mean, it's, it's the pinnacle in the world. And so those are our two inspirations. And so originally in 2019, when we crafted our first prototype. We very much approached the design process as if we were writing a movie. Uh, and it was a revisionist history of the sixties as if our car had existed. And we created all these fake images and like floated them online and people were really confused. And it, it was a really fun, unique way of, of sort of placing ourselves in the period where we were kind of trying to design for, but also just engaging with people and telling a unique story. So. Yeah, you absolutely nailed it. It is, it is very much, uh, American Hollywood coach building story.

Chris Brandt: 13:24

Well, it's very cool. And, and, and so let's talk, let's talk about some of the technology that's, that's built in. Because, um, I, I mentioned that this can be like an internal combustion engine or it can be an EV. And my understanding from what you said is like. You can have both of those and you can swap 'em out within like an hour and, and, and use either one. Um, there's a lot of really interesting technology you've put into this and it's a very modular design. And, and I know that, you know, when we were talking before, you kind of talked about sort of the idea of the Forever Car

Nikita Bridan: 13:58

from the very start. You know, again, coming from our, our car. Sort of background OEM background. Um, we realized that basically Sustainability energy and timelessness is very much driven a lot of times by the powertrain And we've worked on electric. We worked on hydrogen. We worked on flying cars We worked on combustion cars and you see there's drawbacks with all of them. Each one's unique and good but diversification really is sustainable path forward for each application. Um, and so, you know, in this segment of car, you can't really sort of tell people we're just going to do electric, right? Cause everyone's then thinks that it's a cell phone. And again, to go back to that analogy of like a 15 year old cell phone, no one wants that. Right. Right. Um, And so you, you get into this world where these cars are seen a bit like a Rolex watch, right? It's like comparing a Rolex watch to an Apple iWatch, right? It's, one's digital, one's mechanical. One retains value and probably appreciates over value and has, you know, a hundred year history. One is basically a throwaway item every two years. And so, we understood the limitations of EV because of that. Uh, we really wanted to build a platform that could FAD is the wrong word, but like, you know, society tends to like, drift towards one technology, then drift towards another technology. And we wanted to create a platform that could adapt with, you know, client whims. Also adapt with technology. And so we approached it more architecturally, like your house. If the roof goes bad, you don't just throw away your house. You fix the roof. If the, if the heating system breaks, you know, you don't throw away the house. Right. And you don't buy a new house every two or three years. Um, So we, we kind of wanted to get rid of this planned obsolescence that's, you know, developed into cars now since the 60s. And again, yeah, it's a very architectural approach, timeless, and yeah, it was a, it was a crazy vision to try and make it swappable. Um, it was inspired by Audi in 2000 at Le Mans. They did an entire rear end swap, and I was, I think, 12 or 13. I was watching this on TV. And it left a very memorable moment for me when they just swapped the entire rear end of their car after a crash. And, uh, it was like, whoa, that's cool. And they did it in four minutes. We're targeting an hour, so, yeah.

Chris Brandt: 16:35

But still, I mean, that's amazing, though, that, like, you could go from an internal combustion engine to an EV in an hour. Um, that's, that's quite, and without a pit crew, I'm assuming. You don't, you don't need a whole pit crew to do that, right?

Nikita Bridan: 16:48

Correct, yeah, I mean, we're aiming to have it basically one person to be able to do it. Um, so we're developing. Quite a few system components. The most interesting one is probably on the electrical side, right? Because you're running, you know, 800 volt system for the, for the batteries and how does that integrate then with a, you know, basically a 12 volt system for combustion. Um, so there's some really cool stuff. There's some solid state fuse boxes and really interesting developments that have been coming on board. Um, where the technology finally allows for this to happen. And the biggest thing is like the EV tech is light enough now to where it's lighter than combustion or on par. And so now it actually makes sense. You know, you're not, you're not just dumping a brick of batteries back there and destroying the character of the car. It's actually very comparable. So, um, that's another big facilitator.

Chris Brandt: 17:38

Like what parts are modular, like, like what, how in this, like, you know, cause obviously the first round of cars are going to be a fairly substantial investment, way more than I'm going to be able to afford. I mean, I'll, I'll get the hot wheel version or something is some someday, but, um, but I mean, like, so like what, what parts are like sort of what, whether the sort of discrete components that are kind of.

Nikita Bridan: 18:01

So, I mean, at the very heart of it is basically a carbon fiber tub, uh, that's proprietary to us. And it's been designed to be as flexible in terms of accommodating, yeah, different power trains, different options, et cetera. So that was a really big development cost for us. Um, but it was super key to set the entire thing right. And then off this carbon fiber monocoque chassis, sort of the. Let's call it the passenger safety cell. Uh, you've got a front and rear subframe. So, on both the EV and the gas, we share a front subframe. The cooling requirements are pretty similar between the two powertrains. So you don't really need to, I guess, change anything in terms of the radiators or the brakes or the suspension on the front, um, at the rear. It's that's where it gets a little bit different, uh, between the two power trains, mostly due to packaging. of sort of the batteries obviously want as low as possible on the combustion we're able to tilt the engine i think seven or eight degrees which gives us a little bit better aero underneath so there's a few differences in the underbody but the suspension the arms the brakes that's all basically interchangeable so it all comes off as one big module from kind of the rear Uh, firewall, uh, kind of the back of the monocoque, and then that's where the swap happens.

Chris Brandt: 19:18

You're basically building a really high performance vehicle that's street legal, but I, but I've heard through the grapevine that, uh, you're thinking about a race car version of this too. Could you talk to that a little bit?

Nikita Bridan: 19:32

Coming, coming out soon will be our, our track only brand. Um, so it's a development of. Again, we're going back in time. We're looking at the 60s and there was a fantastic brand called Shadow. Last year we, we worked really hard to get some of the, acquire basically those rights and uh, we're going to relaunch it. Um, Shadow was an amazing team, amazing team. It was. It's founded by a CIA agent, Don Nichols, and, you know, there's all sorts of shadowy conspiracy theories about it being, you know, uh, sort of a subversive government operation, propaganda and all sorts of stuff. So it's a fantastic, again, story to tell, uh, it's a very cool brand, um, and it will form the basis of effectively, yeah, just a, a track only variants. So those will come out after we finish the HF11, um, and those will be even more extreme Uh, and just pure 1970s Can Am mania. Yeah, it'll be fun.

Chris Brandt: 20:35

I gotta imagine, I gotta imagine. Um, so, you know, obviously, um, this is not, you know, like a everyday driver kind of car that we're talking about here. Um, you're obviously developing a lot of really interesting technology that I would assume, you know, you're going to leverage. Some of the innovations that you make in other markets potentially or other, you know, vehicles. And, and much like, you know, many other car companies, you're starting with this really, you know, high performance Vehicle that's a very, you know, rarefied air kind of purchase. Um, but it's, my understanding is you're looking to eventually come down market and make something for the, you know, that I could afford, for example, at some point, hopefully, right?

Nikita Bridan: 21:28

Exactly. Um, you know, it's, it's a very capital intensive sort of thing to start your own car company and it's, it's very high risk. Um. And, you know, because of that, yeah, oftentimes a brand will start with like a halo product, put themselves on the market, establish a reputation. And, you know, then, then it's an interesting choice. A lot of companies will not go down market because as you go down market, your margins obviously shrink, the risk goes up. Uh, and it's, you know, it's a, it's a, a scale issue, right? You need to go to scale, right? We don't necessarily believe in that. We genuinely, when we built this company, it was for the enthusiasts for, for people. Like everyday people, you know, obviously we love sports cars and spend money on sports cars, but not necessarily to the same degree as like, you know, multi million dollar cars, which, you know, I grew up relatively poor. So it's not, not something I ever dreamed about. Um, and I think there's, there's something just. It's just so endearing about a car that you can kind of just go have fun with and it's not so precious that, you know, you're worried about every scratch or putting a mile on it. So we really, really, really want to make a car that's, yeah, much more affordable. That captures the same sort of ethos and, and vision, but at a much easier price to swallow.

Chris Brandt: 22:53

Yeah, I mean, I, I have a, I have, I have one internal combustion car, which is a Subaru because I live in Chicago. And, you know, there's absolutely nothing better in the snow than a Subaru. I mean, it's. They're ridiculous. And then the other one is a Volkswagen ID. 4, which is an EV, which has a lot of that, you know, unex, you know, like I got it, uh, an SUV, you know, for, for the family. And I thought, well, you know, I have a son who's going to be learning to drive in these cars. So I gotta, I gotta have like a lot of safety features and things like that. But the unexpected benefit of it was it was really fun to drive. Because it's just like all that torque and acceleration and things like that. My, my 15 year old son's like, yeah, this is a car I like rather than the Subaru. My daughter loves the Subaru. My son loves the VW. So

Nikita Bridan: 23:43

yeah, it's, uh, it's the new generation, right?

Chris Brandt: 23:45

EVs, I think are bringing some of that joy back to it because I think to get into, you know, an internal combustion engine car that. Um, that's fun. Like in a similar way, it's not always easy to get something that's going to function practically in your life, you know? Um, and, and I think the EVs can, can kind of bridge that gap nicely. Um, you know, certainly there's some shortcomings there, but you know, it, it's, it's, uh, it's an interesting change to the market, I think.

Nikita Bridan: 24:21

As opposed to like, I don't know, when I was learning to drive, it was like an old pickup truck or a Corolla. Right. And it was like, it couldn't get out of its own way. It was slow. It was terrible. Right. So,

Chris Brandt: 24:31

yeah. You know, when I was younger, you know, the, the, the ultimate car to have was the, like the Shelby Cobra, you know, the 427 Cobra with the, you know. Um, and, and I think, and as I recall the specs on it, because, you know, as a teenager, I obviously memorized all this. Like, I think it was like. Five, zero to 60 in 5. 9 seconds or something like that, which at the time was really fast, but my, my VW ID four is faster than that in zero to 60. It's like five, you know? So it's like, I mean, it's nowhere nearly as cool as the Shelby Cobra or, you know, are you going to get that rumble and sense of, you know, crazy ground rush and all that. But, um. But it is amazing how things have changed, and what our expectations around performance are, too. And the cool thing is, now you have both.

Nikita Bridan: 25:24

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And it's, uh You know, the, the purists will equate, you know, electric cars with a microwave and combustion with a barbecue. Right. And it's like, that's not really fair, but you know, I understand it. Yeah. It's, it's funny how, how people approach it. Yeah. We love both. Yeah.

Chris Brandt: 25:40

And, and, and, you know, the one thing I do miss is like, I had, I had an old Toyota when I was younger that, you know, like had a, had the stick, you know, and that R22 engine that was just never, never ending, you know, you didn't. Need to do anything, any repair, maintenance, anything of it. It just ran forever, which is certainly the way I treated it. Um, and drove it a top speed anywhere I want. Um, but. You know, uh, I, the one thing I do miss is the, the gear shift, you know, like the manual transmission and I know like, you know, obviously in a, in a internal combustion engine supercar, it's going to have a manual of some sort, right? I would imagine. Um, and, and you're, you're gonna have. that gearbox in there. Can you talk about how that gearbox, you know, works with the EV side of things?

Nikita Bridan: 26:31

With combustion, obviously we do run a manual, you know, there's a, there's a whole cult of people that yes, swear by manual and sort of the driving joy. And I, I'm one of those, I love driving manual. Um, if I drive an automatic, I just fall asleep. So I'm just so used to it.

Chris Brandt: 26:45

Um,

Nikita Bridan: 26:46

even in traffic, I love it. It keeps me awake.

Chris Brandt: 26:48

Yeah.

Nikita Bridan: 26:48

But, uh, yeah, on the electric side. Um, you know, I think there's a number of brands now that are trying to sort of simulate it with computers and to us, that's just, what's the point? You know, um, we're just making worse products just to have a little nostalgia. So we went full all in, right? So our product is definitely worse than, you know, just a single speed auto in an EV. Um, we're going to be a little bit slower because of that, but we do have. A very traditional manual gearbox. So as a real clutch, as real gears, you're shifting a real transmission. Um, which has effect on noise, it has an effect on vibration, right? Because you get the rise in RPM, you get the, the de acceleration, the engine braking, um, even the electric. So, it's a very unique thing. It hasn't been done in production, um, by anybody. And we really genuinely think that it's gonna kind of transform at least the market segment that we're operating in. Um, so, yeah, I'm looking forward to sort of doing, yeah, the first test drives in it. I haven't driven it yet, um, but really, really excited for it.

Chris Brandt: 27:59

That sounds so much fun. I, I, I'd love to have that experience. That's, that sounds super cool. Um, so now, you know, going back to the race car side of it, race cars don't have the same kind of, Gear shifts and manual transmissions that they used to now, it's, you know, sort of more like the paddles and it's, you know, it's a whole different animal there. Like, how, how are you going to do that for, like, are you going to race the inter you're going to race probably both the internal combustions and the electric circuits, right? With this new vehicle.

Nikita Bridan: 28:30

Unquestionably, EVs faster today. In day and age, right? It's impossible to take a lap record off of an EV. Um, no doubts. I think for our track day cars, we're going to focus a lot more on the experience of it. Um, these aren't necessarily going to be competitive race cars within a defined rule set. So, You're not proving anything to anybody by being, you know, half a second faster around a lap. But what you can prove is how much fun you, you can have and how diverse the experience can be, right? Because no one else can have Go out in the morning, run combustion over lunch, have the powertrain swapped and then go out with EB. Um, nobody else can do that. And, and to us and to the clients, I think that's really, really attractive and it's very different. Um, it's also going to be a very different driving style, um, because you do have a manual transmission and you have. In EV powertrains, so what does that do with regen? How do you go into a corner? Do you actually downshift to increase your regen? Um, and how does that interact with the braking and everything? And, and weight shift? Uh, so it's, it's very, it's, it's interesting because no one's done it. And to us, that's, that's sort of the appeal. And I think it is the appeal to the, to the clients as well. You know, it's really a return to that 60s spirit of like, Let's build it, let's try it, you know, a little bit of magic, a little bit of wishful thinking, and you know, let's do it.

Chris Brandt: 29:58

Yeah, something, something to be said for, for the, the magic of happenstance and all that too.

Nikita Bridan: 30:04

Yeah, happy accidents, right? And we don't know until we know, like, and we don't know what we don't know. And, and that's the beauty of the journey, I think, and the people that want to be involved with that is, you know, if you're doing something for the first time in the world, like. There's going to be mistakes, but also it's going to be, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Chris Brandt: 30:23

Speaking about those maniacs, um, you, you, have you already got your 11 mapped out for this first run of, of, of people who are, who are subscribed for this?

Nikita Bridan: 30:34

Yeah, I mean, we're, we've got our, our list of pretty much all the 25 owners. Um, we're working with them slowly. I think, you know, everybody has a wait and see attitude until we have a proper car that they can go and drive and hoon. Um, but certainly there's a ton of interest in, in, uh, I guess our strategy of the, the. The agnostic nature of it, um, and interest has been split actually like 50 50 between EV and gas, which, which to us was a little bit surprising. We thought there would be more gas interest, but, um, yeah, I think everyone's, everyone's ready for sort of a new take on EV.

Chris Brandt: 31:11

I will be really interested to see what ends up being more popular. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So the first 25 have, have all already more or less been spoken for. So anybody who's watching who wants to get in on this, you're kind of out of luck at this point. But, um, could you talk about, you know, obviously your next project is this race car. Version, um, which I got to imagine is fairly similar to what you've, you've got maybe taking off some of the street legal features. Um, but then, then where do you go next? Like, what's the next project after that? Building more of them? Are you going to? try to develop a different vehicle?

Nikita Bridan: 31:50

Well, I mean, as a, as a boutique manufacturer, that's going to keep us busy for the next, yeah, five years, let's say. Um, but certainly we're not, yeah, resting on our laurels. Um, you know, as you alluded to earlier in the conversation, we've got the, the, the more affordable one to develop. So we're, we're kicking that project off already and sort of putting in the, The financial controls to sort of, yeah, start developing that, um, that's, that's really important to us and to, I think, the spirit of the brand, uh, so that we speak to a more diverse client as well. Um, and then there's, there's a few other really, I guess, dream projects that we want to do. Um, and those are basically being in discussion. They're, they're in the same vein of sort of an expensive supercar, um, but a little bit. Different approach. Um, so yeah, we can't talk about them yet, but hopefully soon we'll be able to to reveal them. And, uh, yeah, those those will be Those would be the ones that were like, where as a kid, I was like, this is the dream. And it's like, to make that happen would be, would be amazing. So yeah, those, those are kind of the, the big overarching goals for us.

Chris Brandt: 32:57

Well, I would imagine with sort of the modular approach you're taking to things, you could start building, you know. Cars that you can kind of design yourself and say I want this front end and this back end this power plant this, you know Interior, you know and just kind of like, you know, talk about bespoke. It's just like, you know design your car, you know It's like, you know, make your custom Nike shoes

Nikita Bridan: 33:19

funny when we started oil stain lab. That was very much the ethos and the vision for it was to be a coach builder, right? Build these one off cars. We quickly found out that if you don't have like an existing kind of reputation or product, it's very difficult to sell a one off thing, right? Like a total lack of trust. And so, yes. Uh, we definitely want to get into that and we've, we've, we've had some conversations with people about doing some crazy one off stuff. So, um, but first things first, production car.

Chris Brandt: 33:50

Yeah. You just have to have to have that all on the AI line that's assembling these cars. And I put my order in and have my custom design car in the afternoon. That's what I'm expecting eventually. Yes. You know, for a price I can afford, right? That's the goal.

Nikita Bridan: 34:07

Yes. Absolutely.

Chris Brandt: 34:08

I probably gonna have to start making a lot more money, um, but yeah, no, I, I, I think this stuff is so wild. I can't wait to see, I mean, you know, like I've seen the renderings and the, the pictures and all that, and we'll, you know, put them out, uh, on the video here, but, um, You know, I can't wait to actually see what it looks like, you know, out on the track, flying around and, and, and really, you know, eating up the miles there. Um, that, that's going to be really cool.

Nikita Bridan: 34:38

We're, we're planning to start testing the new car in, in May, June. So that's our target. And then we're. doing testing now with the EB powertrain and an older prototype. So, um, yeah, if you're ever in LA, come swing by,

Chris Brandt: 34:51

I might have to make a trip.

Nikita Bridan: 34:52

You go.

Chris Brandt: 34:52

Um, yeah, well, so I think what you're doing is super cool. I love the technologies that you're not, you're kind of. developing and implementing and, and, and your, your sort of vision for the future. I think it sounds super cool. Um, I wish you all the success and thanks so much for being on and, and, uh, good luck with, uh, with everything you're building.

Nikita Bridan: 35:13

Appreciate

Chris Brandt: 35:14

it. Yeah. It's

Nikita Bridan: 35:15

been a, it's been a fun chat. I appreciate it, man. Yeah.

Chris Brandt: 35:17

Thanks for watching. I'd love to hear from you in the comments and if you could give us a like. Think about subscribing, share this with a friend, and I will see you in the next one.