What’s your side hustle? Have you been able to put a passion project into play?
Do you gig with a local band? Offer welding services to local racers? Trick out die-cast cars that you sell via Etsy?
I guess mine started with photography. Race car photography, of course.
As a student at UGA, I had Road Atlanta about an hour away. Once I figured out how to request a media pass–hello, business center fax machine–I was set. I might have also made up my own official-sounding company name and printed some letterhead on one of the Mac Pluses in the computer lab.
A photo pass meant a front-row seat with the possibility of selling some pics–or at least getting them published. And maybe that would, one day, lead to getting paid. (A boy can dream, right?)
I landed some early takers, too: the Atlanta Region SCCA newsletter plus Alfa Owner, SportsCar and a magazine out of Florida called Grassroots Motorsports.
But I never launched my own venture. Instead, I started full-time at GRM about two years out of school. Closest to doing my own thing has been my BMX/punk rock/whatever zine that, sadly, has been on hiatus the past two years. Things got busy, you know.
If you think about it, most large companies started as small ones–just an idea hatched by someone with some entrepreneurial spirit. Hop into your time machine and go back a few decades, and today’s cornerstone companies like Hagerty, FCP Euro and Tire Rack once operated as little mom-and-pop shops. (Check your old, old issues of GRM for those early Tire Rack ads: “OUR SALES PERSONNEL ARE CAR ENTHUSIASTS LIKE YOU.”
Over the last 30-plus years, one of our Central Florida locals grew a little BMX side hustle–stickers and T-shirts at first–into some of the biggest brands in the industry: Subrosa, Rant and Shadow Conspiracy. In addition to supplying all manner of bikes, parts and gear, his companies back some of the scene’s biggest riders and events.
Ronnie Bonner is still at the helm of that BMX juggernaut and seems just as passionate as ever. During a recent podcast interview, he said something that rang loudly: “If you take, you must give.”
He explained that a little further: “If you’re going to make something from this, you must also make sure you’re giving back into it.”
In this case, he was talking about supporting the scene–doesn’t necessarily have to be money or involve a lot of time, he stressed. His point was that those in the position to give back should do so. And over the years, we have personally enjoyed much of his hospitality.
Following Ronnie’s lead, here’s some giving back: four side hustles that add a little spice to our motorsports world.
Do you have an automotive side hustle? I’d love to hear about it.
I wasn't smart enough to figure out how to make money with an automotive side hustle so I switched to photography. In 2018 I left my "day job" and the side hustle is now my sole source of income. It took 12 years. I started with magazine articles in 2006.
Yup, been flipping 3-4 cars a year for the last 16 years.
I think we may have killed Enamel Garage.
Also, I need one of those "I <3 Terrible Cars" stickers on my Triumph.
RadBarchetta said:I think we may have killed Enamel Garage.
Also, I need one of those "I <3 Terrible Cars" stickers on my Triumph.
Well poop on Enamel Garage. Love their stuff.
You can check them out on Instagram, too.
I'm pretty sure every automotive designer/stylist I know has had a creative, money-making outlet during their career. I'm no different, though not doing anything currently. I have at times done automotive photography, car illustrations, motorsport graphic designs, body kits, magazine illustrations and a few other things.
I'm trying to. I just do weird motor/transmission swaps for locals.
Sure do! I buy lusty cars at the bottom of their depreciation curve, spend 1000 hours fixing/upgrading until they are perfect, and then sell them for a loss.
Sure, I buy parts for projects, stick them on a shelf or in a plastic tote somewhere, then a couple years later, I sell them for less than I paid for them!
I've always had an entrepreneurial way, and always done something on the side. I think it runs in the family.
I've been interested in camshafts since I was a kid, and with what I'd learned over the years racing cars with no aftermarket, I recognized a market in need, and started a side business doing custom camshaft grinding. That soon evolved into custom cams and cylinder head work, then sourcing and selling all the associated parts. At one point I had to decide whether to scale it back or quit my job and pursue it full time. I did neither and took on a partner, but a few years ago, as the market slowed, and I got old, I decided I'd had enough, sold all my parts and now only grind every 3 months or so. When I fully retire from my day job, I may decide to build a few engines a year, but I'll probably continue to flip bikes and the odd car.
My friends pay me in beer to have my help and use my garage and tools for brake pad/rotor or oil changes, and electrical issues.
I also accept chocolate chip cookies as a form of payment.
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