Joel Garcia

I was six years old when my parents took me to my aunt and uncle’s house for a typical family get together in Miami, Florida in 1999. After all the boring formalities, my cousin took me into a bedroom where a racing seat and steering wheel was setup in front of a big projection screen TV.

He sat me down and the intro movie to the game, Gran Turismo 2 started playing. The sound of “My Favorite Game,” by The Cardigans, filled the room. It was the most amazing display of motorsports I had ever seen and from that day on, it changed my life.

I had already liked cars, but now it became an obsession. I couldn’t shut up about it. I watched every car movie I could find, especially the “Fast and Furious” series. There was one in particular that stood apart from the rest, and it was “Tokyo Drift”. From the story to the cars to the style and the driving, there was just something about it.

As I got older, I met friends through skateboarding, including my best friend, Danny. The day he got a Nissan 240sx, I had a rekindled fire inside me that was burning for fast cars. Danny taught me all about cars and parts since I really didn’t know anything other than the information I got in the video games. I didn’t have my own cool rear wheel drive car until I bought my first BMW E36 when I turned 20. That car taught me everything I know. There probably isn’t a single bolt I haven’t taken off. Having such a cool car took me places where I met people, bought lots of tickets, learned lots of lessons, had lots of crashes and lost and gained friendships and relationships. It took a lot of crashes for me to finally understand my car and what was too much.

Once my car was all crashed up, I decided to go full on drift car with it and worked as a Chinese food delivery driver to earn money that I could dump into my car. I also became pretty familiar with the BMW car scene in Florida and started buying, selling and trading. Through one of those trades, I met Duarte Viana.

I knew of the old Drift HQ shop but never imagined I’d become so involved with them. But from our first interaction, trading an M3 transmission for the craziest front bash bar/bumper you’d ever seen, they were awesome. No one else in their right mind would have stayed until midnight installing that stupid thing, especially for a stranger. Down the line, I ended up constantly bugging Duarte with BMW questions.

Eventually, I even offered to make videos for him in exchange for a partial Drift HQ sponsorship. Long story short, they did most of the work on my car and always kept in touch. In February 2017, I started hearing Duarte’s plans for the new Drift HQ concept that went from an idea to reality fast. Today, I’m proud to be living in the world of fast cars as co-owner of Drift HQ, alongside my drift bros, Duarte and Savio.