this is Brazil
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I've heard it's home to one of the most
unique and surprising car cultures in
the world I've never even heard of half
the cars here and the way they're
building and modifying these cars is
completely unique to Brazil this thing
is crazy but why why is it so different
well I'm here in Sao Paulo to figure
that out I'm going to meet the locals
I'm going to check out the car scene and
hopefully if I'm lucky I'll get my hands
on the wheel of one of these crazy
Brazilian rides
oh
police is coming up
so this is Sao Paulo a city with a
population of over 12 million that's
more than New York and Los Angeles
combined I'll be spending the next few
days here the first thing I need to do
is go find one of those 12 million my
good friend G who's worked for Donut for
years now let's go find him
G will be our guide for the next few
days he showed us around the city and we
got acquainted with some of the locals
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but I didn't come all the way to Sao
Paulo to do 360 flips I came here for
some cars G is arranged for us to check
out a local tuning shop on the other
side of the city one of the first things
you'll notice here is the insane amount
of Volkswagens
yeah a utility version of a gold yeah oh
yeah look at that bus yeah there's a lot
of them you know how like how late they
made that kind of thing oh it's like
five years back or something really I
mean not five but like yeah it's recent
yeah Volkswagen of Brazil operates
independently from Germany and most of
the models are completely unique to the
Brazilian Market it's actually Brazil's
biggest car company and the most popular
model is this the gall no not the golf
the gall it's just like a golf but a
little smaller a little less fancy and a
little cheaper not only is the gall
Brazil's most popular car it's also
their most popular tuner car
the shop we're going to is called
arvid's garage and they specialize in
v-dubs like these
all right we're here at arvid's garage
Arvid thanks for having us thank you
we're gonna check out some of the
Volkswagens he's working on down here in
Brazil
awesome that's a good looking build yeah
nice guys this apology
yeah small car but it's very fun to
drive six six wow so you guys do
basically everything here yes I miss
doing body work I don't do it anymore if
you want
clearly these dudes love Volkswagens but
they don't always get the parts we do
when it comes to modifying them so
sometimes they have to get a little
crafty so they don't have easy access to
slotted brake rotors so they slot them
themselves on their little uh Mill here
which is pretty cool that's a good way
to do it the reason they even have to do
this stuff is because foreign products
are heavily taxed and that's why you
really don't see that many imported cars
Brazil is a proudly independent country
and over the years has levied taxes and
bargos to support Brazilian automotive
industry and reduce dependence on
foreign markets if you want to import a
car like a 350Z or an E36 you can expect
to pay nearly double once you factor in
all the taxes and then getting parts for
those cars can be a nightmare that
doesn't stop determined enthusiasts from
importing them but for the majority of
car people options are limited so they
just work with what they got so it might
seem like it's kind of the only type of
car here in Brazil but that's not really
the case I think we're gonna go find
ourselves a little bit of a car meet and
see what else is out there
first off thank you to Nissan for
sponsoring today's video second off it's
literally bread meat bread how is that
not a sandwich a hot dog is sideways
though to be a sandwich you have to
assemble it vertically not horizontally
otherwise it would be a taco yeah okay
but a taco is in its own category of
food like a sandwich is that's like
calling Pizza a sandwich because it also
has cheese and bread in it no way Jose
the wrong dude you're wrong dude okay so
by your description an eclair would be a
sandwich don't put words into my mouth
Jerry your whole horizontal vertical
debate doesn't make any sense that means
that if I had a pastrami on rye and I
turned it 90 degrees that it would stop
being a sandwich how about this go to
Ballpark okay go order you a nice juicy
hot dog sandwich and watch them laugh
you right out of the place they would
also laugh at me if I asked for a
hamburger sandwich but that doesn't make
a hamburger not a sandwich yeah because
it isn't you think a hamburger is not a
sandwich it's clearly a sandwich dude
are you kidding me let's go ask some
people okay let's go the Nissan Aria
comes with available Pro pilot assist
2.0 and pro pilot Park so you can focus
on the road and everything else that
matters to learn more about the Nissan
Aria click the link below
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as the night falls we head to one of the
local gas stations G tells me this is
where the local car scene gets together
every Thursday night which is the
unofficial car night in Sao Paulo and
tonight is Wednesday but we called a few
friends and invited them out anyway
sick
it's all happening baby hey how's it
going nice me too
crazy
here we go here we go here we go
yeah that had a low-car sticker on it oh
nice shirt hey nice to meet you man
I recognize that setup a little bit my
father wanted to thank you about that
video you guys made about the oil stains
in the garage oh nice I love that
they're coming out of the woodwork is
this normal here
end of the 80s as you may notice there
are cars like 350zs and e36s that we all
know and love but I also want to see
stuff like this and this is what you see
most of the time when you're out on the
streets these are all over the roads
take a peek down there that's a pre-fat
turbo 330 to the wheels I'm assuming
this is running on ethanol yeah yeah all
right so that big turbo explains why
this thing is sitting the way it is so
this is a front wheel drive car they
rake these out to get a little bit more
weight on the front so they have more
traction and I've heard this is just the
tip of the iceberg so to speak I hear
there are people making six 700
horsepower and part of that is because
of the ethanol part of that's because
these people are crazy
and then this guy showed up this right
here is a Chevy opala a car that was
made and sold here in Brazil for decades
just like Volkswagen there's also a GM
of Brazil that makes completely
different cars from what we get in the
states what makes the Apollo so special
is that it's rear-wheel drive there are
barely any rear-wheel drive cars made in
Brazil so enthusiasts absolutely love
them and the owner of this one just
asked Max and I if we wanted to hop in
the car for a ride so of course we said
yes
and based on all the people whipping out
their phones I'm starting to think maybe
I should have said no I see there's no
seat belts back here or up here
thank you
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okay so we didn't know he was gonna do
that if I knew the car didn't have seat
belts and the dude was about to go full
Vin Diesel on us and maybe I would have
thought again but we are already in the
car so there's no going back now
so that was interesting but there's
something else interesting about these
gas station car meets the gas look at
that ethanol or more specifically the
ethanol remember how Brazil wants to
reduce Reliance on foreign markets well
a huge part of that is offering
brazilian-made sugarcane ethanol at the
fuel pumps and this has been the case
here since the gas crisis in the 70s
this sugar fuel makes up about 40
percent of the country's Transportation
Fuel and nearly all new cars are able to
run it and most old cars like the ones
we've seen here tonight have been
modified to accept it and the thing with
ethanol is you can make a lot more
horsepower than with gas and that's part
of the reason these guys are able to
squeeze so much power out of these tiny
little engines so how much power can you
actually squeeze out of these little
engines well our next stop is a shop
that's building four cylinders with more
power than just about anything at this
gas station meet and they focus on a
specific four-cylinder the most popular
one in Brazil the Volkswagen AP engine
we're here at made for street
Motorsports and the owner of has some
pretty interesting AP powered cars to
show us this thing is so clean it looks
like it's fresh off the showroom floor
this is a Volkswagen severo a little
stubby pickup truck version of the goal
can you imagine having one of these in
the states it would be so cool
all right and this engine they're using
motorcycle Pistons oh and the ITB setup
is that those are made in Brazil for
this type of as a modification yes
fires right up
okay oh yeah oh yeah that's cool that's
a big turbo for this little thing so
everything here is Ford in Brazil yeah
the whole block everything's for us I
always go for a thousand it's the only
card that doesn't run because of it's
the ownership yeah so yeah that's how it
always is I understand shall we move on
to this yeah this thing is awesome
all right
all right just keeps getting crazier and
crazier so it's clear that they're
making big Power with these little four
cylinders but how are they doing it well
with all this stuff the AP engine has a
huge amount of aftermarket support
unsurprisingly all this stuff is made
right here in Brazil from the Pistons to
the rods to the valves to the entire
head and everything in between Brazilian
companies have done everything they can
to squeeze the most juice out of these
APS these are awesome and that's why the
AP is the go-to choice to swap into just
about any car not just Volkswagens it's
kind of like the ls swap of Brazil
[Applause]
all right well this thing sounds awesome
we made I think it was about 450 wheel
horsepower on low boost which is 36 PSI
high boost is 50 psi and suppose we make
somewhere in the ballpark is six 650
wheel horsepower which is crazy and you
want to know something I want to see
some of these insane AP engines in
action I must drive one and to do that g
has one more thing up his sleeve to cap
off our tour of Brazil
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we've been having an absolute blast in
Brazil so far but we got one thing left
to do and that's have a big drift party
with everybody we've met along the way
so we rented out the local track and we
invited everybody we've met along the
way and all their friends with all their
crazy cars so it's time to see some of
these wild Brazilian builds in action
and I hear I might get to experience the
AP engine for myself I'm excited can you
tell
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we've seen Volkswagen golfs we've seen
Chevy opalas but this is the first time
I've seen this it's a Chevy Chevette and
it's one of the most popular drift cars
in Brazil we did get the Chevette in the
states for a few years and they didn't
really catch on but in Brazil they were
produced for decades and like I
mentioned earlier Brazilian made
rear-wheel drive cars are pretty hard to
come by so for a lot of drift
enthusiasts this is their AE86
this one was built as a tribute to
takami's 8-6 from Initial D you probably
won't be surprised to find out that it's
powered by an AP engine so he can make
good cheap ethanol fueled power and
guess what he just said I can drive it
myself I'm finally gonna get to see what
it's like to drive a Brazilian drift car
all right before I hop in the driver's
seat of an AP engine powered car I just
wanted to say this there are obviously a
lot of reasons for Brazil's super unique
Car culture but at the end of the day
they're just doing what they can with
what they have which is true pretty much
anywhere in the world we had a blast
making this video I hope you enjoyed
watching it nearly as much as we enjoyed
making it and if you did let me know
where you want to see us go next in the
comments because we want to go now it's
time to go get behind the wheel of a
Brazilian AE86 which the owner told me
is the hardest to drift car in the world
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all right
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and I want to send a special thank you
to all our friends that made this trip
possible from G to arved and Luis a made
for street Performance Shop Jamie Orr
helped us plan the thing out and all the
people of Brazil for welcoming us to
your country now there's only one way to
end a sick drift meet and that's a 900
horsepower super burnout
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