So Cal Car Scene
Hosted by Dean Morash, the So Cal Car Scene podcast features in-depth interviews with celebrities and influencers in the car scene from So Cal, USA and around the world.
Find us on BuzzSprout, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!


So Cal Car Scene is the premier place for coverage of car culture in Southern California and the personalities that drive it. Hosted by Dean Morash, our podcast features in-depth interviews with celebrities and influencers in the car scene from So Cal, USA and around the world. We produce special videos like Car of the Week and Behind The Iron, celebrating influential cars and the stories behind their incredible builds. We also produce and share videos of our guests’ cars and their journeys.”
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Podcast Archive
Missed an episode? Find it here! You can also see past episodes on BuzzSprout or on our YouTube page.
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Ricardo Lopez, Owner of Customs By Lopez, Showing Us His Shop and Talking Custom Car Fabrication
Join us for this great ride as we learn about Ricardo's emergence in the custom car scene and his great story as a 3rd generation car fabricator. Check out this video as Richard takes us into his shop to see all of the cool stuff him and his team are working on like a 56 Chevy Truck for his wife named "Monik", a 59 Chevy and a 64 Mustang. Ricardo owns and operates "Customs By Lopez" in Southern California in Los Angeles and makes some of the most incredible custom muscle cars in the world! Ricardo's story is a fascinating one as he immigrated to the US from Mexico in the 90s with his brother to pursue the American dream fabricating cars. He started his business in his garage along with his brother in 2002. He got his AA degree in Automotive Management Administration at Cypress College in So Cal and as they say, “the rest is history”. Since then, a string of honors and recognition has come his way from notable shows such as Top 40 SEMA's Battle of the Builders with his Hellanor Mustang, Good Guys Best Truck, Best of Show for 3 consecutive years at the Boyd Coddington Show and Drivers Best for his VW Bug in 2000. His rides have been featured in 50 plus magazine features with numerous covers to his credit. -
Ken Johnson, Mega Muscle Car Influencer and Social Media Guru Joins The So Cal Car Scene
Ken is a big time social media influencer and motivator in the car scene. One of his Instagram pages “Classics Daily”, has 1.7 Million followers, the biggest classic car page on Instagram! He leverages his social media influence to launch and manage car shows and other events. He is one of the key influencers and partners behind one of the biggest monthly cruises in the country, “The Quarantine Cruise” in Orange County California that has over 2,000 cars. He is currently building a supercharged 1,000HP 71 Nova, “Boosted Nova” and it has taken on a life of its own on Instagram and it has not even been revealed yet. He is the owner of Musclekings, a lifestyle brand complete with events, social media, concerts and merchandise. He also owns Social Lab Media, that specializes in Facebook, Instagram and google Marketing. Watch this episode and get some ideas on how a serious influencer does it and how he can help you blow up your social media and improve your game in the classic and muscle car scene. -
Chris Aston, Ruffian Mustang Builder is Back to Talk About his Next Projects Like a 1100 HP 64 Ford.
I hope you got to listen to the first segment of this show with Chris Ashton! This is part two where Chris talks about his next adventures in cars that are about to join the Ruffian family like a pro street 1964 Ford Galaxie with a Nelson Racing twin turbo engine that cranks out 1,100 HP on pump gas and a Ron Sutton chassis. A second generation RX7 wide body powered by Tesla that should be a real track monster is also next up as well. Chris wants to build a car with the throttle response of a Tesla P100 D drivetrain and so it will be transplanted into the Mazda. In the wings is a fuel injected big block 69 Corvette street machine. Chris also reveals why he bought a real deal retired Corvette race car. Chris discusses the challenges of ordering parts for his builds during Covid and so he plans to build the Galaxy and the RX7 at the same time in the Ruffian garage. I think you will enjoy getting insights into Chris's builds and what drives his imagination. Enjoy! -
Chris Ashton, Builder and Owner of the "Ruffian Mustang", Shares His Next "Build Ruffian 40"
We are very fortunate to have back on The So Cal Car Scene, Chris Ashton who is the owner and builder of the Ruffian Mustang. In this episode we hang out with Chris in his garage as he shares with us his next custom car "Ruffian 40" a Superformance GT40. We had so much fun with Chris we are breaking this up into 2 segments and will have a part II where we talk future projects that Chris has already started on like his 1,100 HP 64 Ford Galaxie. In his In his day job/career Chris has has worked in computer game development for 25 years and has co-owned Turtle Rock Studios for more than a decade. During his career he has helped ship numerous AAA games such as Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Counter-Strike, Left4Dead, Evolve and Back for Blood.
An avid car enthusiast and fabricator, Chris has owned fast cars since he was a teen and has been high performance driving for 20 years. He currently owns a ‘67 Dodge Dart with a Hellcat motor, a Superformance GT40, a Superformance Cobra FIA and a pro touring 1970 fastback Mustang called the Ruffian, that he built himself and launched at SEMA a few years ago. -
Cherielynn Westrich best known for her time on the hit show Overhaulin, joins The So Cal Car Scene
Cherielynn is most well known as a Car Builder on the A-Team on the hit show Overhaulin', with Chip Foose. She’s helped build over 70 plus cars and appeared on over 75 episodes on that amazing show. She brings all of the car fab skills to the table, welding, fabricating, wiring and gauge restoration. She has also appeared as a fabricator and builder on shows such as Rock my RV with Brett Michaels, Detroit muscle and All Girls Factory Five build on the Power Block. She now makes appearances at car shows large and small including hosting and appearing on the official video for the NSRA, Street Rod Louisville Nationals. She also is the proud owner of a company that specializes in Hydraulic clutch pedal kits, Malwood USA.
Cherielynn has worked along side some of the most well known builders in the industry in the Orange County and LA areas including BS Industries with Bodie Stroud, Circle City Hotrods, Cambra's Rod Shop, Poor Boys, Curtis Seed Equipment with Mike Curtis, North Hollywood Speedometer, Redline Gauge Works, to name a few. And believe it or not, she has added to her extensive resume and it now includes Iowa State Representative. -
Lyn St James, Indy Race Car Driver joins The So Cal Car Scene and shares her amazing life story.
Lyn is a very accomplished race car driver, highly sought after public speaker, and author. Her accomplishments on the race track are significant, such as Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, Seven time Indy 500 Driver, victories at Daytona 24 Hrs, Sebring 12 hrs, Watkins Glen and Road America. She set 21 national and international closed course speed records at over 225 MPH! She also has numerous awards and recognitions but a few that really stand out to me are “Sports Illustrated Top-100 Women Athletes of the Century” and “Working Woman “One of 350 Women Who Changed the World between 1976-1996”. Most recently Lyn was named to the Sebring Hall of Fame.
Maybe you have read one of Lyn’s books, “An Incredible Journey”, “Oh By the Way”, or the “Car Owner’s Manual”? Lyn is also the former President of the Women’s Sports Foundation and founded the Women in the Winner’s Circle Project Podium Grant and has made significant contributions to motorsports, both on and off the track. As a motivational speaker, Lyn has presented to companies such as Bosch, Ford Motor Co., HSBC, Merrill Lynch, NIKE, and GTE, just to name a few. Her legacy is one of inspiration, encouragement, perseverance, and commitment to excellence. -
Interview: Noah Alexander, Classic Car Studio Speed Shop Owner
In this interview The So Cal Car Scene has the pleasure of being joined by Noah Alexander, the owner of Classic Car Studio Speed Shop in St Louis Missouri. Since 2006, his shop his made a name for itself as a builder of high-performance machines that combines classic lines with the best modern technology. You have seen some of their incredible builds at SEMA as they build some of the best custom street rods in the business. You may have seen him and his team on his TV show “Speed is the New Black” on Motor Trend TV for 2 seasons. Watch this video and check in on Noah and his shop to see what they are up to lately and what they are putting into some of their amazing machines. -
Interview: Master Car and Disney Artist Noah Elias
Noah Elias is an American artist, known simply as Noah, he works within the fine art community and custom art scene. He is best known for painting the Suki art car in the 2 Fast 2 Furious movie, but he is also a widely collected painter of Disney Fine Art. Noah soon took his art to the streets, painting portraits of celebrities on canvas for huge crowds outside neighborhood coffee shops. This celebrity exposure made Noah an overnight star within the art community. Soon after, corporate clients like Lexus, Levi's Jeans and Toyota were asking Noah to enhance their corporate collections and ad campaigns. In 2004 he garnered international fame for his paint job, or "rolling canvas," on the Suki car in Universal Pictures' hit movie, 2 Fast 2 Furious. He has since won "Best Paint" at S.E.M.A. 4 years in a row for the "rolling canvases" he created on behalf of Alpine Electronics. Now, Noah devotes a substantial amount of his time towards creating Disney Fine Art, a mixture of his unique style and those beloved Disney characters. Due to his success as an artist, he founded Noah University to teach other creatives and artists how to make a career from their work. -
Car of the Week #3: 1969 Pro Touring 69 Camaro
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Check out our sponsor: wickedautodetailing.com
In our third episode, we have this custom-built 1969 #Chevrolet #Camaro. And when we say built, we mean BUILT. Under the hood, you'll find a LS7 motor, clocking in at more than 600 horsepower. -
Current Car Trends 3: It's Our Anniversary
Our podcast has made it one year around the sun! To celebrate, we review all of our greatest hits, talk about the new electric Hummer, the survival of auto museums, Millenial and Gen Z interest in cars, and the state of the collector car market. -
Interview: Sean Lee of Purist Group
The So Cal Car Scene is going live. This our first episode doing so! We are honored to have Sean Lee of the Purist Group as our first live guest.
Sean was born in Taiwan and came to America when he was a young man. He grew up in LA and like so many of us struggled through his teenage years to find his way. He joined “Air Tiger Express”, a shipping company early in his career and thanks to some mentoring and hard work he became their top global salesperson. Eventually, Lee leveraged his success into a vice president role and received an ownership stake in the privately held company. Since then his career has been very successful and has provided him the opportunity to be very active in the car scene. Maybe his greatest accomplishment is that he is very philanthropic and started a very successful charity in 2012 the Purist Group, which provides toys for 1,000s of needy children as well as helping the homeless and fighting autism. -
Putting Women in Cars: Interview with Cindy Sisson and Theresa Gilpatrick of GS Events
Cindy is the CEO and Theresa is the COO of GS Events LLC, and are the founders of this elite consulting group that brings decades of marketing, operational, experiential, and branding expertise to life. Both of them and GS Events bring the passion for all things centered around the premium automotive and performance lifestyle through their client network and engaged membership. Their flagship offering, WomenAndCarsEvents, exemplifies their mission to amplify women’s participation in the automotive culture. They strategically develop programs for women to participate in car events around the United States with other like-minded women.
Whether you enjoy rallies, concours, auctions, restoration, the business side of collecting cars or have always yearned to expand your skills to drive a vehicle to its fullest potential, GS Events has something for you.