The guest
Steve Strope: Founder of Pure Vision Design, an acclaimed custom hot rod and muscle car builder whose cars have appeared on Hot Rod Magazine covers and in Fast & Furious.
What this episode covers
Steve Strope, a custom muscle car builder and 20-year friend of Joe, recounts his improbable path from tinkering on cars in small-town Apalachin, New York to building award-winning hot rods in California. He details starting with nothing, building cars in barns, driveways, and a shared apartment parking garage before owning a shop, and how relentless work earned him magazine covers and a Hot Wheels line. He also opens up about a harrowing eye-health saga, including advanced glaucoma, a detached retina, and seven surgeries that cost him sight in one eye. The conversation roams through mafia history, overfishing, mercury in seafood, rat and owl intelligence, bowhunting, and the philosophy of cars as functional art.
Recommended on this episode
MediaRecommended
Rats
Netflix
“an amazing documentary”
“there's an amazing documentary on Netflix called Rats and you watch it and you just go what”— Joe Rogan
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Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Ford
“that's a great car ... reasonably priced looks great”
“the new one the dark horse that's a great car right from the factory six-speed 500 horsepower reasonably priced looks great”— Joe Rogan
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The End of the Line
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“The End of the Line, Clover's reporting reveals that bluefin tuna, the endangered species with perhaps the most alarming plight”— Joe Rogan
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Deadliest Catch
Discovery Channel
“those guys that risk their lives to get you the crabs, you ever watch that show, oh, The Deadliest Catch”— Joe Rogan
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John Wick
“if you watch John Wick he looks super legit, he absolutely knows what he's doing because Taran trained him”— Joe Rogan
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Blade
“someone should re-redo Blade's 69 Charger from the movie Blade, do you remember that”— Joe Rogan
BookReferencedISBN verified
Hot Rod Magazine: All the Covers
Drew Hardin
“he had a book called Hot Rod Magazine All the Covers which covered all the way up to 2009, Hot Rod started in 1947”— Steve Strope
BookReferencedISBN verified
Appalachin
“there's actually a paperback and a movie about Apalachin, what's the movie or paperback, it's just called Apalachin”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Hot Wheels
Mattel
“your normal Hot Wheels are 164th scale, they were going to try this new thing with like 150th scale, call them G Machines”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Vintage Air
Vintage Air
“I built for cross country driving so it's got modern air conditioning like Vintage Air and dynamite sound deadening”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Porsche Panamera seats
Porsche
“I have these really wonderful seats from Porsche Panamera, cut seven inches off of it, they're like 18 way power, heated and cooled”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Heidts independent suspension
Heidts
“on this Road Runner I have a brand new suspension from Heidts, that's a IFS and IRS, it's really trick stuff”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Dedenbear pneumatic shifters
Dedenbear
“I used a company called Dedenbear that made pneumatic shifters for drag racing, it's hooked up to a computer”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
B&M ratchet shifter
B&M
“it runs this solenoid that is attached to a B&M ratchet shifter so you can never skip a gear”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Art Morrison chassis
Art Morrison Enterprises
“the independent suspension the way you set it up, was it Art Morrison, Morrison stuff yeah”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Kinesis K19 wheels
Kinesis
“with the wheels with the black wheels the silver outline, Kinesis wheels K19, and the color is BMW Sterling Gray”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
American Racing Torq Thrust wheels
American Racing
“this like the second set of big 18-inch Torq Thrusts, we were the first guys doing any pro touring Mopars”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Dremel
Dremel
“they come at you with a Dremel drill bit and they drill it out, hold still don't move”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
SpeedKore carbon fiber Charger
SpeedKore
“what did you think of that one that someone built that they made all carbon, speed core, that probably drives great cuz the lightweight”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Classic Recreations carbon fiber GT500
Classic Recreations
“a company that makes classic Recreations, they do a complete carbon fiber GT500”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Anvil carbon fiber body panels
Anvil
“we helped develop all the carbon fiber pieces for a company called Anvil and we unveiled the car at SEMA in 2010”— Steve Strope
ProductReferenced
Traxxas
Traxxas
“that is owned by the gentleman who owns Traxxas, the radio controlled empire”— Steve Strope
Big reveals from this episode
- Steve has advanced glaucoma and a detached retina; after seven surgeries a surgeon cut away a third of the retina to save the eye, not the sight.
- He sold everything to move to California for a job, only for his new boss to be evicted and Federal Marshals to raid the shop.
- He built top-10 award-winning cars in a shared underground apartment garage, secretly covering neighbors' cars in plastic at 3am to paint parts.
- At one point Steve slept in his shop next to the lift and showered at a 24 Hour Fitness because he couldn't afford an apartment.
- His Nova is one of only five cars in Hot Rod Magazine history to be featured on the cover three times.
- His 'Hammer' Road Runner was rented for a Fast & Furious film as Vin Diesel's car in the burnout stunt scenes.
- Baseball legend Reggie Jackson owns Steve's 'Dusta' Duster build.
Worth remembering
- Steve's hometown Apalachin, NY was the site of the 1957 mafia bust that forced the FBI to finally admit organized crime existed.
- Roughly 90% of all large fish, including tuna, swordfish, marlin and cod, have been removed from the ocean since 1950.
- You can ingest a full week's allowable amount of mercury in a single serving of tuna.
- El Caminos are essentially station wagons with the roof and rear-seat floor pan removed and a bed added.
- Steve built what he says was the world's first paddle-shifted muscle car, using CO2-powered drag-racing solenoids.
- Owls hunt in complete silence, making them ruthless, efficient assassins; rat poison kills them up the food chain.
- In New York City the biomass of rats may equal or exceed the biomass of humans.
- Michael Bisping fought the last 10 fights of his UFC career, winning the middleweight title, while blind in one eye.
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