Who are you and where are you from?

I’m Ryan! Im from all over the mid south area. From Arkansas, Memphis, Texas then back to the Memphis area in ‘06!

What do you do for work?

I’ve done a few different things. When I was a kid, I used to work for my dad at the saw mill and helping him. Once I was older, I started pressure washing 18 Wheelers and personal equipment. From there, I opened my own body shop/ custom shop (Lacey Bro Customs) and started building custom cars. I ventured into hot shot transport and when that slowed down, I went into underground construction while also still doing custom work. Frame fab, air ride and other custom builds.

How long have you been driving?

Well, I learned to drive a stick when I was 8 years old. I’ve been drifting for about two and a half to three years now. Right now my current drift car is an e46 with a Gen 4 5.3, DOD deleted, Summit cam, TR6060 trans and a Stage 3 Monster Clutch.

what got you into cars?

My dad got me into cars at a young age. He used to have a 70-72 Chevelle 454 big block that he used to burn the tires off of in the neighborhood. When we were kids he used to let us drive around in the field, doing donuts and power sliding and everything. Also taught us to respect the road at the same time.

What has been your favorite event/track?

My favorite.. man.. I really like the Landers Center, but it’s not real technical. I would probably say Midpond, because it’s more technical. You have to have more skill for it. The more I go out there, the more I drive, the better I get at it. I’m still not a master at it, but I would definitely say Midpond is a better track. Also, we have to travel to go there. So it’s like you and a group of your friends hanging out. Just a bunch of the boys doing the same shit that we all like to do. You don’t get annoyed by random people talking to you the whole time and walking up constantly while you’re working on your car and asking for rides and stuff like that. You kinda just stay to your own. Sometimes we’ll share cars out there. We’ll drive each other’s cars or we’ll ride with each other and critique each other. We use it as like a building block to do better next time. We can also test different combinations, like what steering angle and stuff like that. I would love to go to Atlanta and I would also love to go to some tracks out west. Atlanta is more achievable to go to. I’d love to go to some California stuff. But that’s down the road.

What’s been your favorite build?

As far as something I have built for a customer.. The Lincoln that Vahan and I built was a nice car. It was a 67 Lincoln Continental with a 5.0 Coyote swapped backed with a 10r80. We built everything other than the upholstery and the new radio. It was the most headache and the most stressful car I’ve had to build, but also the most rewarding car.

As far as my personal builds.. Has to be my bagged truck because it has not been very problematic at all. It’s a 2004 Dodge Ram that is bagged and body dropped. I planned it out when I built it and I built it on budget. I’ve added things over the years but it’s held up. It’s done really well and I’ve hardly had any major issues out of it. It’s very reliable so I would say that’s probably my favorite build. It gets a lot of attention. It’s been built for 10 years and people see it now and if it’s the first time they have seen it, they think it’s awesome and newly built. Sometimes it gets boring but then you get someone who sees it for the first time and tells you how awesome the truck is and how good it looks.

What’s your take on the car community?

I think it’s very spread out and diversified. There’s good groups of people out there that respect all of the different groups and cars. But there’s still haters out there. I think the car community would grow with the older crowd if the boomers would come around to new ways of customized cars. They are just used to their factory restorations with a set of Cragars and a set of black and white letter tires on them and that’s all they want to see. Just factory cars that are rebuilt. I think if they would come around and accept the new culture of bigger wheels and smaller tires and things like that, then I feel like the car community would grow better. I feel like there’s a big divide right there between those. The younger crowd respects the older cars and builds, but the older crowd doesn’t respect the younger crowd’s cars.

What’s next for you?

I want to get my kids into it. My son can drive a stick and he’s 11 years old. I want to further advance my kids to drive or be into the automotive stuff. I want them to learn how to drive. Like my dad did for me. They have a few years before their mom is cool with it. But I do want them to learn and learn to do it safely. So when they go out there in public, they know how to drive and not get into a wreck. I also want to build something that is kid friendly so they can ride with me more at events. Thinking about another drift car or maybe a crew cab bagged truck to take them to more shows with. They love to go to shows with me like the drift shows and LST and things like that. I have some ideas, but I don’t want to say anything about that just yet. Make moves in silence.